Things Not Seen

Published in 2002, Things Not Seen, a science-fiction novel written by Andrew Clements for middle-grade students, tells of a boy who becomes invisible and strikes up a friendship with a girl who is blind. They and their parents search for a way to prevent the public from learning about his condition and tearing the family apart. The work is the first in a three-book series.

Clements, winner of more than two dozen awards, was the author of 68 books, nearly all for young readers. His novel Frindle gained notable popularity and won multiple awards, and several of his other books have become mainstays on popular book lists. Clements noted that Things Not Seen, which won the inaugural Schneider Family Book Award as well as the California Young Reader Medal, generated the strongest response from young readers since Frindle.

The 2006 Puffin Books re-issue of Things Not Seen forms the basis for this study guide.

Plot Summary

Bobby Phillips, 15, wakes one morning to find he’s invisible. He informs his parents, Emily and David, who are both university scholars; they’re stunned and stumped. Tense and afraid, they all start to argue. Bobby returns to his room, where he notices his invisible arm leaves a faint shadow under his desk lamp. His father notices it, too, and suggests that Bobby’s body doesn’t reflect light but does refract it.

Bobby falls asleep. When he wakes, he finds his parents have left for work. Feeling abandoned, he decides to go to the main library at the University of Chicago, a favorite haunt. He strips off all his clothes (they don’t turn invisible with him) and sneaks around the library, watching the students.

He dresses again; on the way out, he bumps into a pretty girl and knocks some of her things onto the floor. When he bends down to pick them up, his neck scarf falls away. She looks right at his missing neck but says nothing. He finds a long white cane on the ground and, realizing she’s blind, hands it to her. They chat for a moment, then he hurries away to get home before his parents arrive.

David is already there and irate that he left the house, but Bobby yells at him for going off to work and leaving him alone. David leaves to pick up Emily; the TV news later reports a car accident, and Bobby recognizes the car as his father’s. A doctor calls and explains that his parents were injured but will be okay.

Bobby takes a cab to the hospital, strips down, and sneaks into his mom’s room: Emily has a broken nose and head bruises. She holds his hand and says she felt bad about leaving him alone at home when she had to go to work. He says he understands. Doctors, who are unaware that Bobby is in the room, tell Emily that David has a nasty arm injury but surgeons repaired it.

Back at home, Bobby faces his first night alone. Fear eats at him until he panics. He talks himself down but sleeps with the light on. He spends the next few days aimlessly, and finally he goes for an unclothed walk past his school. The kids are just getting out, and, imagining himself a naked Greek warrior, Bobby scoffs silently at the popular students who already treated him as if he were invisible.

He walks to the university library, where again he encounters the girl who is blind. A tense moment between them nearly drives Bobby away, but they talk and decide to walk home together. Her name is Alicia. On a busy street, she accidentally touches his ribs and realizes he’s not wearing a shirt. Angry, she orders him to leave or she’ll scream. He tells her he’s completely naked, but points out that no crowd has formed, which is proof that he’s invisible. Alicia asks a passerby to tell her which of them is taller, her or Bobby; the man says he sees no one there at all. Stunned, Alicia realizes Bobby’s telling the truth. She regrets her anger, and they agree to meet the next day. That night, they talk on the phone.

The next day, Emily returns home. She’s angry that Bobby has been walking around town, and they argue. Bobby goes to the university and meets with Alicia, but her father, astronomy professor Leo Van Dorn, drops by to visit, notices her talking to the wall, and interrupts with anxious questions. Bobby is forced to reveal his presence; Leo gets over his shock and finds the situation fascinating. Bobby later visits Alicia at her home; her mom has been told about his invisibility, and she makes him wear a robe.

A truancy officer shows up to check on Bobby’s health; Emily won’t let her in, insisting Bobby has gone to Florida. The police arrive with a search warrant shortly after, but Bobby has straightened up his room so it looks like he’s already out of town. The truancy officer threatens the Phillips with criminal charges if Bobby doesn’t show up in five days.

The Van Dorns visit for dinner, and the two fathers put their heads together to try to figure out Bobby’s condition. They hit on the idea that his electric blanket may generate a magnetic field that caused his invisibility. They investigate the blanket’s control box and find an overactive resistor, but otherwise their search turns up nothing.

Bobby realizes the blanket may have caused problems for other buyers. He calls Sears and learns that many purchasers returned their blankets, but Sears won’t say who they are. Bobby and Alicia go to the Sears offices, where she pretends to look for a job while he sneaks into the personnel office and prints out the list of the 379 people who complained about their blankets. Alicia, meanwhile, has a very encouraging encounter with the company’s personnel division.

At home, he calls nearly 60 people on the list before he reaches a man whose daughter simply disappeared. She contacted her parents twice; Bobby gets her email address, looks it up in a reverse directory, and calls a Sheila Borden, who admits she’s been invisible for three years. She’s figured out how to live with it, and she makes him promise to guard her secret.

Bobby tells his father that another person is invisible. He doesn’t share her name, but he gives the date and city of the event. Leo learns that a major solar storm struck the Earth then, and another one happened when Bobby disappeared. That event is still ongoing, and Alicia wonders if using the blanket again might reverse Bobby’s invisibility. He plugs it in and falls asleep under it but is awakened just before dawn when the police again raid the Phillips’s house. They check Bobby’s room, and the policeman can see him: He’s visible again.

Bobby tells Sheila, but she wants to stay invisible. He mails her the blanket and research data in case she changes her mind.

Alicia is glad Bobby is visible again, but she fears he doesn’t need her anymore, and she tries to break off their friendship. At the story’s end, Bobby heads for her house, determined to convince her how much she means to him.