Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements

[katekintailbc]

Things Not Seen
by Andrew Clements
(Audio)

This story starts out very Kafka-like. One morning, Bobby wakes up and he's invisible. He asks his parents for help and their reaction is that he'll be taken away from them if they go for help. So they instruct him to stay home and then leave for work as though nothing had happened. So what does Bobby do? He heads out into the cold February day in Chicago to see what being invisible out in public is like. He heads to the public library and walks around naked there. And he meets a young girl named Alicia, who is blind.

It's actually a lot of fun, seeing things from the perspective of someone invisible. I'd hoped for a little more insightfulness from him, but he is still just a kid. What you do get out of the whole invisible situation is a lot of emotion. He really wants to be visible again and understand why this happened to him. And he learns how to live his life as someone with a sudden disability, something Alicia can relate to. There's a fun mystery as he tries to figure out what caused it, so it can be reversed. And he even manages to track down another kid to whom this happened.

This book is on the FCPS shelves, and it makes sense as to why. It was very well-written and imaginative. And it makes some parallels in theme to things a lot of young adults think about. I had been expecting more of a "he'd already been invisible because no one noticed him" sort of thing. But what I got was better, less cliche, and still thought-provoking in its own way. The ending was also something of a surprise to me. But it was still a good ending and a fun read.