She is not invisible

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Prize-winning author Marcus Sedgwick explores obsession, trust and coincidence in this page-turning thriller about 16-year-old Laureth Peak's mission to find her missing father. A mission made all the more difficult by one fact: Laureth Peak is blind.

Laureth's father is a writer. For years he's been trying, and failing, to write a novel about coincidence. His wife thinks he's obsessed. Laureth thinks he's on the verge of a breakdown. He's supposed to be doing research in Austria, so when his notebook shows up in New York, Laureth knows something is wrong.

On impulse, she steals her mother's credit card and heads for the States, taking her strange little brother Benjamin with her. Reunited with the notebook, they begin to follow clues inside, trying to find their wayward father. But the challenges and threats that lie ahead are even tougher for Laureth than they would be for any other teenager - because Laureth has no vision to guide her.

Also available as an audio book, read from braille by Anna Cannings.

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

THE FIRST GATE One final time I told myself I wasn't abducting my little brother. I swear I hadn't even thought of it that way until we were on the Underground, and by the time we got to the airport, it was too late for second thoughts, and it was too late to put Mum's credit card back in her purse. It was also too late not to have used that credit card to buy us, Benjamin and me, two tickets to New York, and it was without a shadow of a doubt far too late not to have taken out five hundred dollars from the fancy-pants cashpoint at the airport. But I had done all these things, though I passed at least some of the blame on to Mum for letting me help her with online shopping from time to time, as well as telling me most of her PIN numbers. However many crimes I'd committed already that morning, I'd done it all for a very good reason, and it must be said that they faded into insignificance next to the thought that I was abducting my brother. Benjamin, to his credit, was taking the whole thing as only a slightly strange seven-year-old can. He stood patiently, holding my hand, his Watchmen backpack on his back, silently waiting for me to get myself together. Far from screaming to the world that his big sister was kidnapping him, he was much more concerned with whether Stan needed a ticket. I held his hand tightly. We were somewhere in the check-in hall at Terminal 3. It was loud and very confusing and we needed to find the right desk. People hurried by on all sides and I'd already lost track of where we'd come in. "Stan does not need a ticket," I repeated, for the eleventy-eighth time, and before Benjamin could get in his bonus question added, "And, no, he does not need a passport, either." "But we do," said Benjamin. He sounded a little nervous. If Stan didn't make the flight I knew Benjamin's world would probably end. "Yes," I said. "We do." Just then, by coincidence I heard someone walk past talking about a flight to New York, and that started me panicking. I took a long, slow breath. Benjamin is utterly wonderful, and I love him deeply, but he does have his moments, and I needed him. I absolutely needed him; if I didn't, I wouldn't have abducted him. Not that I had. Not really. "We do," I explained, "because we are real, alive, and human, and Stan--exceptional though he is--is none of those things." Benjamin thought about this for a moment. "He is real," he said. "Yes, you're right," I said. "Sorry. He is real. But he's also a stuffed toy. He doesn't need a passport." "Are you really sure?" "I'm really sure. How is he, anyway?" Benjamin held a brief conference with Stan. I guessed he was probably holding him by the wing, as usual, in the same way I was holding Benjamin's hand. We must have looked pretty silly, the three of us. Me, then pint-sized Benjamin, then a scruffy black raven. "He's fine, but he misses everyone." By "everyone" Benjamin meant the menagerie of fluffy creatures and plastic superheroes in his bedroom. "We only left them an hour ago." "I know, but that's just how Stan is. He also says he's missing Dad." I pulled Benjamin into a walk. "Listen, Benjamin. You need to find the desk that says Virgin Atlantic Check-In. Maybe Stan can help. Don't ravens have excellent eyesight?" It was a bit of a gamble but it worked. "Virgin Atlantic..." Benjamin repeated. "Come on. It's right here! Stan, I beat you. Even though you have excellent eyesight." Benjamin started ahead quickly, and I hung on to him, tugging his hand to try to get him to remember how we walk. It's something we worked out together a couple of years ago and he likes doing it, but I guess he was excited about going on a plane again, and his hand slipped out of mine as he trotted away. "Benjamin!" I called, waiting for him to come back. It was probably only a second or two but I freaked out and rushed after him, then kicked into a bag or something, and went sprawling full length on the floor. Even in the noise of the airport I heard everyone around me go quiet as they watched and I knew I'd made a stunning spectacle of myself. I'd landed with my legs over the bag and my arms flung out in front of me. "Am I invisible?" a man said angrily. My sunglasses had shot off my face somewhere, and I heard him sigh. "Why don't you look where you're going? My laptop's in there." I got to my feet and managed to kick his bag again. "For God's sake," he said. "I'm sorry," I muttered. "Sorry." I kept my head down as the man unzipped his bag, grumbling. "Benjamin?" I said, but he was already back at my side. "Are you okay, Laureth?" he asked, pushing something into my hands. "Here's your glasses." I slipped them on quickly. "I'm really sorry," I said in the direction of the man, and held my hand out for Benjamin to take. "We'd better get a move on." Benjamin took my hand and this time walked with me properly, in our secret way. "There's a queue," he said, coming to a stop. "It's only short." The first gate, I said to myself. That's what Dad would have called it. The first person I had to pass; the assistant at the check-in desk. "It's our go," whispered Benjamin. "Next customer, please!" It was the woman at the desk. I squeezed Benjamin's hand, and bent down to whisper back. "Wait here." "Why?" "You know why," I said, which gave me the task of walking the few paces up to the desk by myself. I was glad it was summer and hot outside, because it looks less weird wearing sunglasses when the sun's shining, even indoors, but after falling over some grumpy guy's bag I didn't want to draw any more attention to myself. "Where are you traveling today?" asked the woman, before I was even at the desk. I thought about my friend Harry at school. He's amazing. He'd have tried making a couple of clicks to figure out where the desk was, but I guessed it probably wouldn't have worked even for him; there was way too much background noise. Besides, there's always the risk that someone thinks you're pretending to be a dolphin. Not cool. Instead, I swept my hands up slowly but smoothly, and was very pleased that I'd got the distance almost exactly right. I mean, I banged my shins painfully into some kind of metal foot rail in front of the desk, but I did my best to keep a straight face and plonked our passports on the desk. "Er, New York," I said. "JFK. 9:55." The woman took our passports. "Any bags to check in?" "Er, no," I said. "Just hand baggage." I turned and showed her my backpack, and waved a hand toward Benjamin, praying he'd stayed where I'd left him. "Short break, is it? Doing anything nice?" I told her the truth. What I hoped was the truth. "Going to see our dad," I said. She paused. "How old are you, Miss Peak?" "Sixteen." "And that's your brother, is it?" I nodded. "And he's...?" "Oh, he's seven. It said on the website he can travel with me if he's five. And he's seven. And I'm sixteen, so I--I mean we--we thought that..." "Oh, yes," said the woman, "that's fine, I was just asking. But does the bird have a passport?" "I told you!" cried Benjamin from somewhere behind me. "It's okay, love," said the woman. "I'm joking. He doesn't need a passport." "He doesn't need a passport," I said. Then I felt stupid and shut up. "Can I have a look at your bird?" the woman said, over my shoulder. "I have to stay here," said Benjamin. "Why does he have to stay there?" said the woman to me. Suddenly things were going in the wrong direction. "You know," I said, trying a smile. "Small boys. I mean, he doesn't have to stay there, but--well--small boys." "Are you okay, Miss Peak?" the woman asked. Her voice was suddenly serious. "Oh. Yes. You know. Anxious." "The flight's not for an hour and a half. You've plenty of time." "Oh, no," I said, feeling more desperate to get away than ever. "I mean about flying. And you know, there's Benjamin." I heard her laugh. "Twins," she announced. "My boys are such a handful, and just his age. And there's two of them, so count yourself lucky. Whenever we go on holiday it's like we've declared war on the poor country." I laughed. I thought I sounded really nervous, but the woman didn't seem to notice. "Have a nice flight," she said. She put the passports back on the desk. "Boarding is 8:55. Should be gate 35. For your own reassurance it would be sensible to watch for any changes." So then there was just the small issue of picking the passports back up off the counter. I made a gentle sweep across the desk and with relief found them straightaway. "Thank you," I said. "Benjamin. Hold my hand. You know how you get lost so easily." Benjamin came over and took my hand. "I don't!" he protested, and then, since he was being indignant about it, forgot to squeeze my hand to show me which way to go. I froze, though what I really wanted to do was get him away from the nice woman's desk before he could do any serious damage. "Which way do we go?" I asked her. "Departures is upstairs," she said. "Escalators are over there." "Benjamin," I said. "Benjamin? Shall we?" But, bless him, by then he was already pulling me away from the desk, in the right direction. He's remarkably good to me, mostly. The first gate had been passed. "Are we going to find Daddy now?" Benjamin asked, as we rode up the escalators to Departures. "Yes," I said. "We're going to find Daddy now." Text copyright © 2013 by Marcus Sedgwick Excerpted from She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Printz-winner Sedgwick (Midwinterblood) again demonstrates his remarkable versatility, trading the generations-spanning horrors of his recent books for an equally tense contemporary story about coincidence, obsession, and the ways in which we see the world. When 16-year-old Laureth Peak learns that a notebook belonging to her father, a well-known author, has surfaced in New York City, she's sure something is wrong. Using one of her mother's credit cards, she buys plane tickets for herself and her younger brother, Benjamin, and flies from London to J.F.K., embarking on a search that takes them across three boroughs. Why would Laureth involve seven-year-old Benjamin in such a risky, impulsive trip? Because she needs him: she's blind. As the mystery builds, Sedgwick includes increasingly frenzied excerpts from Laureth's father's notebook to introduce concepts like apophenia, numinousness, and synchronicity, which are rattling around his brain. Through questions of what-if anything-coincidences mean and a careful and acute account of Laureth's experience of the world (including the brave, hardened exterior she maintains to keep from becoming invisible in others' eyes), Sedgwick challenges readers to rethink how they look at life itself. Ages 12-up. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal Review

Gr 8 Up-Laureth Peak, 16, has just kidnapped her seven-year-old brother and negotiated her way through two major airports on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and is on her way to meet up with someone she's only met via email. The reason for her drastic and dangerous actions? Her author father, who is supposed to be in Switzerland on a research assignment for his esoteric novel on coincidences, is not answering her phone calls and his precious notebook is currently in the possession of a stranger in Queens, NY. The teen sets out on this quest to find her missing father, with a niggling premonition that something sinister has befallen him. However, Laureth is blind, and she needs the aid of her little brother to maneuver through the streets of New York City, fancy hotels, taxis, and subways. The coincidences that pervade the suspenseful novel border on contrivances, but Sedgwick stops just shy of that in this intricately plotted tale that would be right at home as an episode of J. J. Abrams's Lost. The protagonist's first-person narration (which includes no mention of descriptions that involve sight) is interspersed with the pages from her dad's notebook that refer to secret societies, Edgar Allan Poe, philosophy, and physics. Laureth's ability to string together connections while under duress and her sibling's inability to handle devices without circuit breaking them seem quite preternatural and add an air of otherworldliness. At times heavy-handed, this novel will have readers feeling a creepy sensation on the backs of their necks long after the last page.-Shelley Diaz, School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Teenage Laureth didn't really abduct her precocious seven-year-old brother, Benjamin. She just needed his help to travel from their home in London to New York City to track down their missing author father. Why would she need Benjamin's help? Laureth is blind. Once Laureth and Benjamin find their father's precious notebook, they cleverly follow a trail of clues based on his lifelong obsession with coincidences. As they read his increasingly disturbing notes, they start noticing coincidences all around them, and soon a real sense of danger sets in. Has their father unlocked some forbidden truth about the universe? Or are they just finding patterns because they want to? Laureth's first-person narration (notably free of visual descriptions) is full of frustrations about how people perceive her, insecurities about her limitations, and the courageous resourcefulness born of her fundamental differences. Sedgwick (Midwinterblood, 2013) plunges us deep into Laureth's experience, detailing the actions and considerations that seem tiny to the sighted such as deciphering money, shaking hands, using a phone, or standing in line but which are wholly different for the visually impaired. This fast-paced thriller delivers a compelling mystery, thought-provoking questions about existence, and brilliantly lifelike characters.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2014 Booklist

Horn Book Review

Laureth is sixteen, smart, self-doubting, and blind. She is also desperate to find her missing famous writer father -- desperate enough to boost her mother's credit card to buy two plane tickets from London to New York City, forge travel documents, and "abduct" her beloved seven-year-old brother in order to disguise her blindness. Her decision to take these radical steps is based on an e-mail informing her that, even though her father is supposed to be in Switzerland, his writer's notebook has been found in New York. The "road trip" that follows is as full of coincidences and references to the number 354 as said notebook (Laureth's father has been working on a novel about coincidence for far too long, according to her fed-up mother). The unfolding of the mystery is compelling, for the most part, until the end, where it devolves into a remake of Wait Until Dark and ultimately fizzles out completely. But Laureth herself is worth the journey. The tricks she uses to negotiate in a sighted world ("I learned to turn my head toward whoever is speaking; I learned to hold my hand out to greet people"), her determination to fight the tendency of sighted people to treat blind people as stupid or deaf or, most insidiously, invisible -- all are presented matter-of-factly and sympathetically. Readers will applaud Laureth's believable evolution into a more confident -- and definitely more visible -- young woman. martha v. parravano (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

A thriller that challenges readers' understanding of the universe. Laureth's best-selling novelist father, Jack Peak, left for Switzerland to research his latest book, so why did his notebook turn up in New York City? In this departure from Sedgwick's atmospheric historical fiction and fantasy, the British 16-year-old (named for a shampoo ingredient) suspects foul play. Seizing on her parents' troubled marriage and her mother's trip to visit family, Laureth books a flight to New York. She also takes her younger brother, Benjamin, not just because she's in charge of him, but because she needs him: Laureth is blind. After recovering the notebook, she learns more about her father's latest idea-turned-obsession. Well-known for his humorous books, Jack Peak experienced a coincidence that changed his lifeand writing. Since then, he's been chasing down answers to Carl Jung's theory of synchronicity, more commonly known as coincidence. Snippets of his notebook offer true, fascinating revelations about Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli, Edgar Allan Poe and other scientists and authors involved in exploring coincidence. Now the determined teen uses the notebook (excerpts of which are printed in faux handwriting interspersed throughout the narrative) to search for clues about her missing father. In short, taut chapters, her first-person narration allows readers to experience the intrigue through her abilities and shows her tender relationship with Benjamin. It's no coincidence that Sedgwick has crafted yet another gripping tale of wonder. (Thriller. 13 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.