Sarah Levy, age 11, of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, for her question:

Was the Frankenstein monster real or just a story?

No, that weird creature was never real, nor was the Dr. Frankenstein who is supposed to have created it. The whole fantastic yarn was made up from a young lady’s imagination, one evening back in the early 1800s. She was Mary Shelley, wife of the famous poet, Percy B. Shelley. It seems that they were living in Italy, in the company of other poets of the day. One evening, or so the story goes, a group of them invented a sort of in¬tellectual pastime. Which of them could write the grisliest ghost story?

Young Mary, so they say, went to her room and thought up the outline for the Frankenstein story    and just about scared herself to death. When her story was told to the group, no other could compare with it. In 1818, it was published under the title Frankenstein. Many films have been based upon it but they differ from the original tale    except in one important detail. The monstrous creation was never real.