Invisiblity

I was at a writer's conference this weekend, and we got to talking about invisibility, as a superpower. Honestly, I'm not sure it would be all that great, unless you could just turn it on and off at will. And since I left the brick-and-mortor library scene a year ago, I've been feeling just a tiny bit invisible.

One of the presenters brought up how important blogs can be today. Which got me thinking. My favorite part of being a YA librarian has always been reader's advisory and booktalking. I love connecting teens with just the right book. Through this blog, I'm going to try to do that. I'm planning to cover YA stuff, as well as crossover reads in the areas of Science Fiction, Mystery and Chick Lit.

But for today, let's talk invisibility. My favorite invisibility book of all time is Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements. You've got this fifteen-year old guy who wakes up one morning to find out that he can't be seen. And after his parents get into an accident, he has to deal with the problems that presents on his own. The best part of this book is the relationship he develops with Alicia, a blind girl who doesn't realize she couldn't see him. Clements is on his third in the series, but I warn you, while the first is laugh-out-loud funny, Things Hoped For and Things That Are take a decidedly dark turn from the usual Clements fare.

What is it, though, with blindness and invisibility as a concept? I've seen it in a number of books and movies. In Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Chevy Chase's character tells his love interest, "It would be perfect if you were blind."

On the way home from the conference, I finished "reading" The Schwa was Here by Neal Shusterman on audio. Fun book. It's about a guy whose best friend is invisible-ish. There's a blind girl in that one too, only her blindness leaves her with the inibility to see what others are feeling. The sequil, Antsy Does Time, came out in September.

I think the thing that really gets me in both of those books is that neither of the characters actually WANTS to be invisible. They just want to be normal. Like most of us, really.