Things Not Seen
Andrew Clements
Puffin
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
*****
DESCRIPTION: Fifteen-year-old Bobby is a typical teen, until the morning he wakes up to discover he’s invisible. It’s not just that his parents don’t notice him, though as a college professor and top physicist they sometimes get preoccupied with their work. He’s really invisible, as in he can’t see his own face in the mirror. Suddenly, Bobby finds himself a ghost in his own home, as he can’t go to the school or even the library without a visible body. He can’t even talk to his friends or see a doctor, for fear that the wrong people could take an interest in his unusual case. While his mother worries and his father tries to determine what happened (with little success, but lots of theories), Bobby begins to explore life as the ultimate hidden observer. But a child just can’t vanish for weeks on end without someone getting suspicious; unless Bobby wants to see his family carted off to jail, he’s going to have to figure out what caused his invisibility - and if it can be reversed.
REVIEW: A fast, good read that creates surprisingly believable characters, Things Not Seen is less about why a boy could become invisible and more about how people deal with a seemingly impossible phenomenon. It goes without saying that Bobby has to do some growing up along the way, especially when he meets the blind girl Alicia and learns that not only is he not alone in being alone, but that even his slim chance of restoration to “normal” is more than many people have. I loved it, and stayed up well past midnight to finish reading.
You might also enjoy:
The Remnants series (K. A. Applegate, YA Fiction - Survivors of a devastated Earth wake in a strange place, where some demonstrate peculiar abilities)
The Chamber of Horrors series (Bruce Coville, YA Fiction - Teens find themselves thrust into dangerous situations)
The Magic Shop books (Bruce Coville, YA Fiction - Children with troubles find their way to a mysterious magic shop)
Jumper (Steven Gould, YA Fiction - An abused teen discovers an ability to teleport instantaneously to anywhere he's seen)
Forbidden Mind (Kimberly Kinrade, YA Fiction - A telepathic teen girl in a secret school learns what really happens after her classmates "graduate")
The Watchers series (Peter Lerangis, YA Fiction - An anthology about ordinary kids who find themselves in peculiar situations)
The Enchanted Castle (E. Nesbit, YA Fiction - Three English schoolchildren find all manner of troubles, including unwanted invisibility, when they encounter a magical ring)
The Invisible Man (H. G. Wells, Fiction - A scientist discovers the key to invisibility, losing his mind and humanity in the process)
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