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Book Reviews of Things Not Seen

Things Not Seen
Things Not Seen
Author: Andrew Clements
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ISBN-13: 9780142407318
ISBN-10: 0142407313
Publication Date: 4/20/2006
Pages: 272
Reading Level: Young Adult
Rating:
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 10

3.5 stars, based on 10 ratings
Publisher: Puffin
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

15 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed Things Not Seen on
Helpful Score: 4
Interesting premise. The writing style was short and abrupt. I didn't care for that, but my kids did. My kids really identified with the struggles the main character was going through. The target audience is obviously young teens. It was a good read.
Terabithia avatar reviewed Things Not Seen on + 71 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
It's a Tuesday morning in February, and I get up as usual, and I stumble into the bathroom to take a shower in the dark. Which is my school-day method because it's sort of like an extra ten minutes of sleep.
It's after the shower when it happens.
It's when I turn on the bathroom light and wipe the fog off the mirror to comb my hair. It's what I see in 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.
ophelia99 avatar reviewed Things Not Seen on + 2527 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
I got this book on a whime, because the premise sounded interesting. It was a decent book overall; although not so spectacular that I want to read the next two books in the series.

Bobby wakes up one morning to discover that he is invisible. No one can see him and he can't see himself. What seems kind of cool at first, is actually quite a problem as Bobby and his family try to figure out what happened and Bobby tries to struggle through normal everyday life. He ends up meeting a blind girl named Alicia; they are both invisible to people in their own way. Bobby and Alicia form an unlikely friendship that helps Bobby to deal with his invisibility.

This was a pretty good book. Bobby and Alicia are likable characters, as are their parents. Bobby has to struggle with interesting issues as an invisible person. He can't go to school and can't even go out places unless he goes au natural. Bobby's condition is dealt with in detail given that his dad is a successful physicist that is determined to fix his son. We learn strange facts like the fact that Bobby's spit is invisible, but things he holds in his hand do not become invisible.

Of course this book, like many books dealing with teenagers, is about more than Bobby becoming invisible. It is about how Bobby felt invisible before he actually became invisible and how his parents react to his invisibility. It is about how people, including surrounding society, deal with disabilities. It is also about Bobby and Alicia, from very different social circles, form a steadfast friendship because of their respective disabilities. They would have probably never even tried to get to know each other if it wasn't for Alicia's blindness and Bobby's invisibility.

The book is a quick read and keeps you engaged. The writing is not spectacular, but it is very readable. Overall it was an interesting read and deals with some interesting topics. I liked it. The story wraps up very nicely at the end. I actually had no idea that there were two additional books dealing with Bobby and Alicia until I looked up this book on Amazon. Will I read those books? Probably not, I got what I wanted from the book and am not really all that interested in what happens to Bobby and Alicia next.
reviewed Things Not Seen on
Helpful Score: 1
this book is about a boy who was turned invisible and then he had to try to figure out how to get back to normal.
shannonm avatar reviewed Things Not Seen on
Helpful Score: 1
Really good book, the setting gets stuck at parts (because he's stuck at staying home and going to the library) but the events keep it going and make you want to keep reading to find out what happens next. The "friendship" Bobby and Alicia have is really nice and cute too :)
reviewed Things Not Seen on + 6 more book reviews
My sons loved reading this book...great book for middle-schoolers.
chermoli avatar reviewed Things Not Seen on + 4 more book reviews
Very different view of child and his dead father.
banana27 avatar reviewed Things Not Seen on + 12 more book reviews
great read also read all of clement's books
reviewed Things Not Seen on + 27 more book reviews
Great fiction for preteens...
reviewed Things Not Seen on
It has an ok storyline of a boy who has become invisible. He meets a blind girl whom he befriends and he ends up being changed back by the most predictable way
reviewed Things Not Seen on + 6 more book reviews
Slightly childish but it would be fun to be invisible No?
reviewed Things Not Seen on + 44 more book reviews
Book Review: Things Not Seen
Author: Andrew Clements

This is a young adult book â actually more kiddie lit. It's geared to smart upper elementary grades or middle school children.

It's a science fiction book because it's an odd occurrence explained by scientific fact. Mostly it's a book about relationships â parents and kids, first loveâ¦

A boy wakes up, takes a shower, looks in the mirror and is invisible! The rest of the book deals with how he copes with what so many people have wanted â to be able to be in a room and no one knows you're there.

The book is cute, but I've read MUCH better kiddie lit.
reviewed Things Not Seen on + 31 more book reviews
Very creative. Fun to read.
reviewed Things Not Seen on
I am very excited about reading this book I can feel the tension building just by reading these reviews
RoyalCatwoman avatar reviewed Things Not Seen on + 278 more book reviews
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.