Product Description

"Bobby Phillips is an average fifteen-year-old-boy. Until the morning he wakes up and can't see himself in the mirror. Not blind, not dreaming-Bobby is just plain invisible. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to Bobby's new condition; even his dad the physicist can't figure it out. For Bobby that means no school, no friends, no life. He's a missing person. Then he meets Alicia. She's blind, and Bobby can't resist talking to her, trusting her. But people are starting to wonder where Bobby is. Bobby knows that his invisibility could have dangerous consequences for his family and that time is running out. He has to find out how to be seen again-before it's too late."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3941 in eBooks
• Published on: 2007-06-27
• Released on: 2007-06-27
• Format: Kindle Book
• Number of items: 1

Amazon.com Review
Teens, especially those not in the über-popular set, know all about feeling invisible. But what would happen if you actually did wake up invisible one day? Fifteen-year-old Bobby is faced with this curious predicament in Andrew Clements's compelling novel Things Not Seen. Doing his best to adapt, Bobby informs his parents and grows more and more frustrated as they try to control his (unseen) life. Attempting to take matters in his own hands, he ventures out--naked--to the library, where he meets a blind girl who becomes a natural confidant. The ensuing drama, involving a nationwide search for other invisible people and a break-in to the computer database at Sears, Roebuck legal department headquarters ("News flash: Invisible people make excellent spies and thieves") is authentic enough in detail to allow readers to overlook the nuttiness of it all. Teens will identify with Bobby's experience of being essentially invisible. Highly recommended. (Ages 11 to 15) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly
The earnest and likable 15-year-old narrator is the principal thing not seen in Clements's (Frindle; The Jacket) fast-paced novel, set in Chicago. As the book opens, the boy discovers that he has turned invisible overnight. Bobby breaks the news to his parents who, afraid of being hounded by the media, instruct him to share his dilemma with no one. But when Bobby ventures out of the house and visits the library, he meets Alicia, a blind girl to whom he confides his secret. Their blossoming friendship injects a double meaning into the book's title. As preposterous as the teen's predicament may be, the author spins a convincing and affecting story, giving Bobby's feeling of helplessness and his frustration with his parents an achingly real edge. As his physicist father struggles to find a scientific explanation for and a solution to his son's condition, husband and wife decide that they will tell the investigating truancy officials and police that Bobby has run away. Bobby, however, becomes increasingly determined to take control of the situation and of his own destiny: "And I want to yell, It's my life! You can't leave me out of the decisions about my own life! You are not in charge here!" Equally credible is the boy's deepening connection to Alicia, who helps Bobby figure out a solution to his problem. Ages 10-14.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 6 & Up--"-I turn on the bathroom light and wipe the fog off the mirror to comb my hair.-I'm not there. That's what I'm saying. I'm. Not. There." Thus starts the adventure of Bobby Phillips, who wakes up one morning to find that somehow he has turned invisible. The 15-year-old and his parents live with the worry of what happens if they can't figure out how to reverse his condition. With a nod in the direction of H. G. Wells's Invisible Man, Clements allows readers to speculate what it would be like to be invisible. As they see Bobby deal with his situation, they also experience his fears of being alone, unable to talk to his friends, or to tell anyone for fear of the consequences. He reaches out to a blind girl, Alicia Van Dorn, and together they begin to fight back as best as they can. The quest for visibility becomes even more frantic when the school officials and the local police decide that Bobby is the victim of foul play. The threat of having his parents thrown in jail for his own murder makes the teen even more desperate to find out what happened to him. Clements's story is full of life; it's poignant, funny, scary, and seemingly all too possible. The author successfully blends reality with fantasy in a tale that keeps his audience in suspense until the very end.
Saleena L. Davidson, South Brunswick Public Library, Monmouth Junction, NJ
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

wonderful
This review is for parents and other grown-up friends. Please give this book to your children to read! It will be their friend as they work their way into adolescence.
My 11 year old daughter pleaded with me to read this book. Several months later, finally having found the time to read a "kids' book" in my busy adult, responsibilities-filled life, I am almost intoxicated by its beauty!
This is Rebel Without a Cause in the emotional world of the younger crowd! It is a book about how "What is essential is invisible to the eye" (The Little Prince).
But most of all, this is truly a coming-of-age book. I suspect that the first stage of every increased level of maturity is the feeling that nobody in the world understands what we have just understood. This is a feeling of invisibility. I scanned through the kids' reviews of this book, and I don't worry that they seem to miss the metaphoric aspect of this feeling of being invisible. Books can speak to us on many levels, and whether they are conscious of it or not, I'm quite sure that this slightly confused, slightly frightened invisible boy who stands his ground in the face of the adult world will have a powerful influence on the lives of its readers.

Unique and Different Story from Andrew Clements
Andrew Clements is well-known for a series of "school stories," novels about students and situations in school. In this book, "Things Not Seen," he takes a departure from that path for a unique and moving story about a boy who wakes up, takes a shower and finds that he's gone completely invisible.

This story has a fantastic premise, but it also has a deep feeling of realness. You may have fantasized about being invisible, but what if you didn't know to make it stop and had to deal with it all the time? The boy, Bobby, in this story, confronts this situation --- he can no longer go to school, he's afraid of being found and studied by the government and he can't even go out and hang with his friends. As he begins to deal with the realities of his new life, he finds himself doing and thinking things he never would have thought of before. And when his parents are hurt in a car crash, he's left alone at home and has to start fending for himself.

As Bobby ventures out, he meets a friend --- someone with whom he can share his experiences and open up to as he's never to anyone before. I won't spoil for you just how this happens, you'll have to read this and find out for yourself.

Things Not Seen
"It's after the shower. That's when it happens. It's when I turn on the bathroom light and wipe the fog off the mirror. It's what I don't see. I look a second time, and then rub at the mirror again. I'm not there. That's what I'm saying. I'm. Not. There."

Every teenager can remember a time they felt invisible. For fifteen year-old Bobby Phillips of Chicago, life changes dramatically when he wakes up one morning and finds out that he is literally invisible. Clements introduces this conflict on the first page, and instantly draws you in. Bobby knows that because of his newly discovered condition, he can no longer go to school, see his friends, or have any contact with the outside world because of what people will think. Even his physicist father cannot figure out what went wrong. Clements uses the metaphor of teenage invisibility to covey a powerful message: even people who feel invisible can be seen for what they are.

Bobby believes his life has ended until one day he decides to dress up in heavy clothes and escape to the library. He meets a blind girl named Alicia Van Dorn who knows all people as invisible. Clements uses the character of Alicia to show Bobby that he doesn't have to be seen to be noticed. Alicia symbolizes the people in the world that look beyond physical appearances. They instantly become friends and embark on a journey to find out how to get Bobby back to normal. The two friends and their families start to wonder if there are more like Bobby in the world and if there are, where and how to find them. The situation only worsens when Mr. and Mrs. Phillips are charged with the murder of their missing son. Can the Phillips and the Van Dorns get Bobby back to normal before it's too late?

Clements does an excellent job of making the story suspenseful and mysterious from the first page. This novel is a story of adventure and friendship with a splash of science fiction. I couldn't set it down because of the fast paced and original plot. I felt as if I was right there with Bobby and Alicia trying to make everything work out. I truly recommend this book to junior high students who like becoming close to characters and sometimes feel invisible. Things Not Seen has a little bit of everything mixed together, which makes one thrilling story.