The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a “what if” story, by which I mean that it easily flows from the statement “what if there was a kid who was so boring he seemed to disappear?” I like what if stories. They are accessible and have a purity of of focus to them. I admit when I picked this up I knew nothing about it other than that it won some ALA designations and was by an author I generally respect. However, once I started into it, I had a hard time putting it down. The Schwa is a kid named Calvin who somehow is completely ignorable - to the point of being practically invisible. This is discovered by the stories narrator, Antsy Bonano. The two of them team up and for the first time in his life, The Schwa has a friend. However, what must that be like for an invisible kid to finally be noticed? What is it like if he and his friend are both vying for the attentions of the same girl? And what is it like for Antsy who is just a kid but now finds himself the emotional touch point for this fantastically broken kid? The story is fast-paced and the voice is delightfully flippant.

What I really love about this book though is how Shusterman writes a story for middle school kids that is utterly non-condescending. He tackles some really tough issues too. I think most kids, of both genders, experience falling for the same person as their friend. It's not an easy thing, at any age. I also think most kids feel invisible at some point. What kid hasn't felt alone? Shusterman is speaking to some very fundamental issues here and he does a good job with it.This is a great read for the middle school set.

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