The Unseen [Hardcover]

Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

Xandra Hobson has always been fascinated by magic. So when she rescues a beautiful wounded bird, she is convinced that the glowing white feather it leaves behind must be magical. When she brings the feather to school, she is surprised to find that Belinda is interested in it, too. Belinda is a weird girl whom everybody makes fun of. Xandra doesn’t want to be seen with her, but Belinda seems to know something about the feather—so Xandra decides to befriend her. Belinda calls the feather a key.

But a key to what? And how does it work? When Xandra tries to use the key, she becomes aware of an unseen world, full of phantoms. Some are soft and cuddly, like the young animals she has rescued. But others are terrifying monsters. Could the key’s magic be evil? Xandra needs Belinda to help her explore the unseen, but she also needs to learn to help herself if the key is to become a gift and not a nightmare.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-Xandra Hobson likes to escape from her family, where she feels like a complete failure in the company of geniuses, and to embark on imaginary adventures involving magic. One day, while in the woods, she encounters real magic when she rescues a bird from some hunters; the next day, it is gone, leaving a feather in its place. A classmate, Belinda, sees it and realizes that it is a key to the unseen world and that with it, Xandra can enter a reality no one else can see. The girls become friends as Belinda and her grandfather attempt to explain the mystical world of the unseen to her. Xandra is terrified by the horrible creatures that surround her and the physical wounds that they inflict on her, unaware that they are of her own making and fed by her anger and hostility. When she breaks her ankle and is stranded in the woods, her family comes to her rescue and she realizes that her siblings aren't perfect and that she is loved. This book is a wonderful ride into fantasy, with a lot of realistic touches to think about and relationships to ponder. Readers will see, even though Xandra does not, that her perceptions about her family are all wrong. They'll also see that being so wrapped up in yourself can cause you to miss what's right in front of you. This perceptive story is not to be missed.-Saleena L. Davidson, South Brunswick Public Library, Monmouth Junction, NJ
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 5-8. Twelve-year-old Xandra Hobson feels like a changeling, growing up alienated in a large family of self-absorbed overachievers. Her parents are rarely home, her siblings seem intolerable, and her position in the seventh-grade pecking order makes her reluctant to be seen with the one girl who interests her, Belinda. In the opening chapter, Xandra saves the life of an injured egret, which leaves her a feather that she believes to be magical. When Xandra learns that the magic is real and that Belinda and her father understand its power, she befriends them but later unthinkingly betrays them. Snyder masterfully portrays Belinda's sensations and emotions in the alternate world she enters with the feather's aid, and she shows how the experience subtly changes the girl's later actions. The novel is too realistically written to let the betrayal of Belinda go without consequences, but neither does the author leave readers without hope. Though less convincing than the magical episodes, the family scenes at the end bring this well-grounded fantasy to a satisfying conclusion. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers; 1St Edition edition (April 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385730845
• ISBN-13: 978-0385730846
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,325,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a compelling read, May 18, 2004

By 

A Customer (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Unseen (Hardcover)

Twelve-year-old Xandra is frustrated, lonely and slightly bitter. She is the ugly duckling in the middle of her large family, and she doesn't have many friends at school either. Her only sources of comfort are her vivid imagination, her massive collection of stuffed animals, and her basement "hospital" where she nurses stray baby animals back to health.

One day, a young egret that she has helped leaves behind a very special white feather. With the help of Belinda, the mysterious oddball at school, Xandra discovers that the feather is actually a Key. The feather allows Xandra to unlock her senses so that she can see the Unseen, creatures that surround us at all times but can't be seen or heard with normal human senses. At first Xandra is eager to explore this new realm, but when the Unseen attack her, she's not so sure. Is it possible that Xandra's own hostility causes the Unseen to be so unfriendly?

The title of THE UNSEEN refers not only to this hidden, sometimes creepy parallel realm that Xandra explores. It also represents how Xandra feels in her family --- everyone else is incredibly attractive, popular and successful, but Xandra feels overlooked and a little bit lost. The truth is, though, that Xandra is the one who doesn't see things all around her --- Xandra's resentment of her siblings and her hostility toward her parents and her nanny make her blind to the love that her family has for her.

Despite the fact that Xandra, who not only shuts out her family but also betrays a new friend, is a sometimes unlikable character, Zilpha Keatley Snyder's imaginative storytelling results in a compelling and rewarding novel.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Unseen, July 25, 2005

By 

Drama/English teacher "RD" (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Unseen (Hardcover)

I am a middle school Language Arts teacher from Florida where THE UNSEEN was among the 15 books selected as Sunshine State Young Readers recommended books for the 2005-2006 school year. Having read all 15 books that summer, a few stood out as being worth a 5 star rating; THE UNSEEN is one of those books.

Since first finishing it in the summer of 2005, I have required my students to read this book for each of the last two school years. I use it to help teach metaphor using a well-crafted young adult (YA) novel. The amazing quality about this book is that it reveals its metaphor so deliciously slowly, it sneaks up on you until you are totally enraptured with the story, and, at the point where you discover the metaphor that is the Unseen, the book gives you the sense that you are reading a story written with intelligence, well-learned craftsmanship and unassuming integrity. At that point, I thought, "Wow! That's good writing!"

The way that Snyder reveals her story and metaphor is subtle and affecting. I have even come to the realization that the key metaphor in this book could also be a metaphor for metaphors -- in the sense that many readers cannot see metaphors until they have the key (Perceptive Knowledge), and when they do learn/find/acquire such a key, new worlds open up to them that simply don't exist for those with limited Vision. That, in itself, to me is a brilliant tool for any Language Arts teacher looking to give his/her students true insight and wisdom. For that alone, this is a book I shall keep forever, and make my students read until I stop teaching Language Arts!

I truly enjoy and appreciate this book and cannot recommend it more. [For those that simply don't "get" this book, please reflect deeply about this book and find the layers. They're there, if you have the key that allows you to see them. Keep trying!]

[I will not reveal any more of the story than other commentators already have as I feel that the joy of the reading is in discovering what comes next.]

2.0 out of 5 stars The Unseen, October 22, 2007

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Unseen (Paperback)

When I started reading this book, I expected it to be an amazing story with a major climax and ending. I thought it was an okay book. The author's writing was amazing, including many metaphors and descriptive details but the actual story line was not. Xandra is one of the main characters in the book and she finds a key to a world not commonly known to humans, called the unseen. The only real conflict in the story was when she got lost in the world in the forest, and it was resolved almost instantly. She was rescued bo her two older brothers and then brought home. The story then started to drag on, explaining how she was finally getting along with her family and everything was happening the way it was supposed to. To me I felt as if I were just reading ink on paper and not actually experiencing the adventure. I belive that the author was trying to write up to some high expectation and then was suddenly rushed to finish the book. I guess I would suggest reading this book but don't expect very much from it.