She Is Not Invisible, Marcus Sedgwick, Roaring Book Press, 2013, 216 pp
THE SUNDAY FAMILY READ
I read a review of this book and it sounded good. It is categorized as YA (or TEEN in my library.)
Laureth Peak (named after the stuff in shampoo) is a 16 year old London girl whose father seems to have gone missing and whose mother seems not to care even if she is clearly mad at the dude. Laureth decides to abscond with her 7 year old brother Benjamin and travel to New York City where Jack Peak was last supposed to be.
A few more facts (not spoilers): Dad is a novelist, author of a series of successful humorous novels and a few not so successful serious ones. He has been stuck writing his current novel for several years. Laureth is blind and therefore needs Benjamin to help her get around in an unfamiliar city, though she has a special cell phone adapted for the blind. Benjamin is a great character but the mom is a cipher.
It is all just this side of plausible. Written as a thriller, the pace is fast except for when the author uses excerpts from the father's journal to explain deep concepts about coincidence, synchronicity, and the theories of Freud and Jung concerning such concepts.
I thought the best aspect of the story was the hurtful bullying stuff about her blindness that Laureth had to get over.
Speaking of synchronicity, I read this book shortly after finishing All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (review coming next), which features a brave blind teenager with a missing father.
(She Is Not Invisible is available in various formats by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)
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