THINGS NOT SEEN

A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Clements, Andrew. 2002. THINGS NOT SEEN. New York: Scholastic Inc. ISBN 0439456207

B. PLOT SUMMARY
Fifteen year old Bobby wakes up invisible one morning. Bobby’s dad, a physicist, sees a problem to solve and his mother hovers and smothers. Tension increases when Bobby’s parents are in an automobile accident and the school notifies the authorities about Bobby’s excessive absences. Bobby’s determination to have some control of his problem adds more tension. As Bobby and his parents try to solve this problem Bobby meets and becomes friends with a blind girl. The friendship helps Bobby cope with his disability, brainstorm and implement solutions to his problem, and improve communication with his parents.

C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Andrew Clements creates a book about physical disabilities with subtle clues to a social disability. Waking his main character, Bobby, up to sudden invisibility on the first page is an attention grabber. Clements begins exhibiting the strong character Bobby is when he realizes that he needs to tell his parents immediately about his invisibility. Bobby recognizes they are smart and smart will be helpful in this situation. The character is invisible but he is still a smart fifteen year old boy that resents his parents control at times, and feels he is socially invisible also. Clements uses these traits throughout the book to show Bobby growing, maturing, and dealing with his problem because it is his problem and he feels he should have some control.
All the characters in this book are interesting due to a common trait. They are all intelligent. This shows a different reality and allows readers to become involved with a fantasy disability. Both Bobby and Alicia, the blind girlfriend, have fathers that are scientists. Both mothers went to the same college and majored in literature. The ensuing “scientific” problem solving and solution are fiction but provide action and interesting reading.
The premise of this book is farfetched but Clements is able to make it work by keeping it action packed, tense, the growing friendship of Bobby and Alicia, and the fear factor.
Bobby’s invisibility is fantasy but it does create obstacles he must learn to overcome. During daylight and cold weather Bobby is able to completely cover himself to mingle among people. On warm days he simply goes without clothes. Elevators need to be avoided; although he is invisible he still takes up space. Some of these provide humor, such as when he goes to visit Alicia at home and her mother gives him a robe to wear, typical mother reaction and humorous. Alicia’s blindness is a real disability and is substantiated without being overdone. She uses a white cane, has a speaking device for her computer, and listens to audio books. The scene when the two of them go to the Sears building and the young man offers Alicia his arm is another disability marker. Alicia’s emotions are another realistic trait. The gravity of her blindness is obvious in many places but when Bobby tells her he is no longer invisible it slaps her in the face again.
Another problem Clements hints at is social invisibility. Sheila, also invisible, states that she has been disappearing for years. Many teens struggle with the feeling of invisibility. Very subtle clues throughout the book hint to Bobby’s awareness of this and how his physical disability sheds some insight to this problem.

D. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Book Report (September/October 2002)
Fifteen-year-old Bobby has an unusual problem: his body has become invisible. His father (a physicist) and mother agree that no one outside the family can know about his situation. His father is sure that there is a scientific explanation for Bobby's condition but a search of databases produces no results. When he literally bumps into a blind girl whose father is an astronomer, the two scientists team up to search for a rational explanation, which becomes more urgent when Bobby's school alerts the State Department of Children and Family Services because nobody has seen Bobby for a month. This is a clever fantasy. Bobby is a smart boy who handles his unusual situation with humor and intelligence. The plot develops so logically that readers can accept that under the right set of circumstances, it might be possible to become invisible. A fascinating story about self-discovery. Highly Recommended. Charlotte Decker, Librarian, Children's Learning Center, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio

Horn Book (March/April, 2002)
For a slightly older audience than Frindle fans, Clements concocts a surprisingly fresh story from a familiar premise: what if you woke up one day to discover that you were invisible? This is exactly what happens to Bobby one February morning in Chicago's Hyde Park. His mom wants to call a doctor ("Yeah," thinks Bobby, "let's call one of those Invisible Teenager Specialists"); his dad, a physicist, is intrigued by the phenomenon; unfortunately (for them but not for the reader), both are soon injured in a car accident, leaving Bobby to handle his problem on his own. While the setup never becomes convincing, and the "scientific" solution to Bobby's invisibility is preposterous, Clements does a great job of placing readers in Bobby's dilemma. He makes us see just how complicated invisibility could be-like when you meet a girl and she doesn't know you're naked, first, because you're invisible, and second, because she's blind. If the blind character, Alicia, allows the book some easy virtue, it's well intentioned and easily digestible, and her friendship with Bobby is empathetically evoked-could it be love? The University of Chicago setting is equally authentically drawn; Bobby is a student at the Lab School, and what we have here is a well-done school-and-family story with a not-so-invisible wrinkle.

Kirkus Review starred (February 1, 2002)
Clements (The Jacket, above, etc.) looks beyond grade school for the first time with a multifaceted rumination on selfhood and various forms of invisibility. Fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up invisible one morning. His equally flummoxed parents, quickly grasping the personal and social dangers should the news get out, urge him to hole up at home. But boredom, worry, and the mutinous thought that he should have some say in the matter soon lead him into a string of adventurous outings, both wrapped up Invisible Man-style, and stark naked. Clements cranks up the stress with an ensuing traffic accident that puts both parents into the hospital, and, as weeks pass, the increasingly persistent attentions of the governmental child-welfare machine. He also provides a needed confidante for Bobby in Alicia, a teenager blinded by a head injury two years before and no stranger herself to that sense of being unseen. Both feeling angry, scared, and vulnerable, their relationship gets off to a wonderfully tumultuous start, but builds on a foundation of caring and loyalty into something solid enough to survive Bobby's final return to visibility. As always, Clements's genius for developing credible plot lines (even from oddball premises) makes suspension of disbelief no problem. His characters, each one fundamentally decent-there is never a chance that Bobby will go the way of the transparent voyeur in Cormier's Fade (1988), for instance-are easy to like. A readable, thought-provoking tour de force, alive with stimulating ideas, hard choices, and young people discovering bright possibilities ahead. (Fiction. 11-15)

E. CONNECTIONS
Students should decide if being invisible is positive or negative occurrence, and then write a persuasive paragraph supporting their position. After completing this activity students should decide if they could handle the changes that would happen in their lives.

Other books about disabilities:
Bingham, Kelly L. SHARK GIRL. ISBN 0763632074
Ferris, Jean. OF SOUND MIND. ISBN 0374455848
Paulsen, Gary. THE MONUMENT. ISBN 0440407826
Rattman S. L. HEAD ABOVE WATER. ISBN 1561452386