The Unseen
by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

The three-time Newbery Honor winning author of The Egypt Game and The Headless Cupid brings us yet another creepy, magical mystery. This one is inspired by the idea that we are surrounded by creatures that we cannot see, feel, hear, or smell. They’re real, but our senses are not “tuned in” to their presence. Plus, those who know about them call them things like reflejos and spiegels (reflections and mirrors) because they take their shape and their behavior from your feelings. Happy, safe feelings mean warm, cuddly creatures; angry, hateful feelings mean creatures that bite and scratch.

So maybe it’s a good thing no one can see them. No one, that is, who doesn’t have a magical “key” to open their senses to this strange, unseen world. Some people do have such keys, and they experience marvelous things.

Xandra Hobson should not be one of those people. She is far too volatile, too often angry, selfish, and mean. She is discontented with her place in a large, well-to-do family full of brilliant, beautiful children. At school, she tends to join Marcie’s Mob of bullying, popular girls and to ignore oddballs like Belinda. Torn between wanting to fit in and not wanting anyone to tell her what to do, Xandra simmers in sullenness and occasionally boils over in fury.

But then, an act of kindness toward a wounded bird leads Xandra to discover the unseen world, through a magic feather that acts as a key. And the only people who can explain what to do with this key are weird Belinda and her even weirder grandfather.

The author of this book takes some big risks, such as focusing the story on a character who is not very attractive, who grows and changes so slowly and with such agonizing setbacks that you often wonder if she will ever “get there.” Plus, the magic portrayed in this book sometimes seems sinister, sometimes vaguely spiritual, and sometimes completely unreal. Is this the kind of magic fairy tales are based on? Or is this something completely original, never imagined before? You get to decide for yourself...another gamble that the author has taken. Is it worth it? I think so. Why don’t you read it and make up your own mind?

Robbie Fischer
USA

Recommended Age: 12+

1/29/06

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