Monster Child: A Memoir

By Kristal M. Johnson

Honorable Mention Award Winner, 12th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published E-book Awards, 2025

By the time her son Konner was 5 years old, Kristal was afraid of him. He was strong, angry and he barely slept, and he threw the kind of tantrums that made other parents look for a quick exit. Determined to rein her son in, Kristal tried every parenting tactic she could find, from elaborate daily reward charts to social-skills classes to punishment. Nothing worked. The doctors said Konner was defiant, yes, but they had no real advice to give. The daycare center said: Don't bring him back.

When her son was 6, Kristal finally got the dreaded call. Konner had been suspended from school for punching his 1st grade teacher in the back during a temper tantrum. Furious at her son, and mortified, Kristal marched into the school principal's office to pick him up one last time. That's when she saw him, her real son, trembling next to the big wood desk, terrified, hopeless. So vulnerable. She had no idea he had autism yet or, worse, some monstrous mood disorder. But she knew her son was suffering, and she'd stop at nothing to set him free.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B089TWSCTJ
• ISBN13: 9798649733021
• Release Date: June 2020
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 266 Pages
• Weight: 0.87 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"