Sunday, June 3, 2012

The Schwa was here (review)

4/5 stars
The Schwa Was Here is the type of book I sometime miss. It's the type that gets lost in the shuffle of paranormal, dystopians, urban fantasy, etc etc.  It's not quite a contemporary.  It's a book that's hard to describe--contemporary with a little bit it whimsy, wonder or magic?

The Schwa, aka Calvin Schwa, is functionally invisible or observationally challenged.  They say if you stare at him long enough you'll see the wall behind him.  He's not the type of kid who's face you forget.  He's the type of kid you don't remember at all.

Antsy Bonano, a middle child with his own brand of invisibility, befriends The Schwa.  At first it's just an experiment to see how "The Schwa Effect" works.  They have him do experiments--like having him stand in a bathroom wearing an orange sombrero and singing at the tops of his lungs to see how many people notice him (surprisingly few).  Eventually this morphs into people daring the Schwa to do ridiculous and daring things--for profit of course.

The book is funny and quirky with a lot of heart.  It follows Antsy and the Schwa on their misadventures and they discover what it means to be seen and uncover the mystery of "The Schwa Effect."


tinkerbell the bipolar faerie said...

I like how they took the concept of a schwa in grammar/linguistics and transferred it to a person. Cool.

veela-valoom said...

I know! This book is just really clever.

Christina G Gaudet said...

This sounds really cool. Nice review.