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Book Summary

Reviewed by Matt Berman

Bobby is frustrated by his parents, like most teens, and feels invisible in school. But when he wakes up one morning he discovers he really is invisible. Unlike most kids in books, the first thing Bobby does is tell his parents, and he quickly discovers being invisible isn't as much fun as you might think. Bobby becomes a prisoner in his own house -- in midwinter Chicago going around without clothes isn't too much fun, and clothes walking around without a person inside them draws unwanted attention.

Things get even more difficult when his parents are in a car accident and hospitalized for several days, leaving Bobby on his own. But in this day and age a boy can't just disappear without first his school and then Child Protection and the police getting involved, suspecting that he has been the victim of foul play. So Bobby must find a way to become visible again before his parents are arrested.

Is It Any Good?

4

Lest anyone accuse him of falling into a rut with his middle-grade school stories, Andrew Clements (author of Frindle, among others) has written a YA novel with a science-fiction twist that has little to do with school. Clements pursues his premise logically. What would the real-life consequences be in this unreal situation?

Unlike other invisibility stories, Bobby neither enjoys his predicament, nor does he use it for any questionable purposes. He just wants his life, such as it was, back. This doesn't have the joyous, grinning-all-the-way-through, everything-happens-as-it-should feeling of his middle-grade books. But fans who have graduated from Clements' earlier books will find he hasn't lost his talent for a gripping story with a satisfying ending.

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