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How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found (Paperback)

~ (Author), Sally Wern Comport (Illustrator) "Most stories start at the beginning, but I really can't say I know where that is..." (more)
Key Phrases: swimming medal, rat boy, Tina Louise, Drowning Ghost, Waterfront Road (more...)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)

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  Paperback, April 30, 2003 -- $2.87 $0.01

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

First-time novelist Nickerson follows an arresting first paragraph with an ambitious but somewhat overengineered tale. Margaret's family has unraveled in the four years since her father's death her mother barely speaks, Margaret is such an outcast at school that she eats lunch in a bathroom stall and her bouncy little sister is obsessed with jigsaw puzzles. When her mother inexplicably drives them to an island and sets up a For Sale sign outside a derelict mansion, Margaret finds a package inside containing a strange comic book, her father's swimming medal and a rusty key. Why did her father drown if he was a champion swimmer? Who is the comic's author, Ratt, and what about the Drowning Ghost who features so largely in his book? Eventually, at the urging of her sole friend, Tina Louise (who all but disappears in the book's second half), Margaret runs away to the island to find answers. Together with Boyd, a lonely boy who lives next door to the mansion and is a Ratt fan (the comics appear regularly on the doorstep of the island's singularly odd library), she solves the multiple mysteries in a somewhat melodramatic climax. Juggling comic strip panels, multiple viewpoints and arch "editor's notes," Nickerson sets up a complex framework that at times works to the story's advantage by adding tension, but often simply overwhelms it. If the structure is unwieldy, the prose stays compelling throughout the sign of a writer with promise. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


From School Library Journal

Grade 6-10-Margaret Clairmont, 12, can barely remember her father or the last time her mother woke up long enough to take them somewhere beyond the grocery store and Laundromat. Their sudden unexpected visit to place a "For Sale by Owner" sign on a dilapidated mansion on an island in the Pacific Northwest is the basis of this interesting mystery. The resolution of a long-standing family tragedy is slowly pieced together in this novel that bears a strong resemblance to Margaret's little sister Sophie's favorite distraction, "THE HARDEST JIGSAW EVER MADE." Parts of the story are Margaret's, describing in a relatively straightforward fashion her secret return to the island to find an explanation for the comic she found in an unopened package addressed to her mother. Parts belong to Boyd, the boy who lives next door to the mansion physically but dwells emotionally within the comics that appear in the island's odd library. Underneath their story is that of an earlier unhappy teenager, who found himself growing physically repulsive as he matured. He became more and more reclusive, even ratlike, and grew to be a man who could never rid himself of his guilt over the death of his idolized older brother. Most of the story is told in prose, in first or third person, but some parts are revealed in the graphic form of the comic books. Even the narrator twists and turns, as the first-person storyteller's identity changes. The satisfying ending will reward readers who have made their way through this tangled tale, but all but the best will probably find themselves considerably confused along the way.
Kathleen Isaacs, Edmund Burke School, Washington, DC
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Product Details

  • Reading level: Ages 9-12
  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins (May 6, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0064410277
  • ISBN-13: 978-0064410274
  • Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #704,120 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Sara Nickerson
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Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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First Sentence:
Most stories start at the beginning, but I really can't say I know where that is. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
swimming medal, rat boy
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Tina Louise, Drowning Ghost, Waterfront Road, Editor's Note, Uncle Ratt, Elizabeth Clairmont, Holy Names Academy, Main Street
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Customer Reviews

32 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (32 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Richie's Picks: HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY, October 7, 2002
This review is from: How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found (Library Binding)
"...Just one look inside this strange house--that was all I wanted.

"Do you know that feeling of doing something and at the same time of watching yourself? It's like watching a movie but you are the movie. And you're watching yourself talk and walk, but the whole time you're holding your breath and thinking, What is she going to do next? ...

"Scary" and "exciting" were the adjectives my ten-year-old son, Alex, used in explaining to me why he's read 100+ pages each of the past two days--... The book that's got him totally enthralled is HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY AND NEVER BE FOUND. I have to agree with Alex: from the book's opening moments--narrated by twelve-year-old Margaret--we are dropped squarely into an exciting and suspenseful tale:

"Most stories start at the beginning, but I really can't say I know where that is. Is it a falling-down mansion on a small island in the Pacific Northwest, or in the navy blue pickup truck making its way to that mansion? Does it start on a sunny day this year, or on a sunny day twenty years before? Is it with me, or with a young boy who, a long, long time ago, believed he was turning into a rat? I guess the only thing I really do know is where it started for me--in that navy blue pickup heading toward a place I didn't know existed. A place that had already changed my life."

The illustrations are an innovative and integral part of the book. They are snippets of Ratt, a comic series for which there is only one hand-drawn copy per issue. Those issues of Ratt appear regularly and mysteriously at the Island's library--a rather unique institution that carries only unpublished manuscripts, apparently all submitted by the Island's residents:

"Under D was not one novel by Dickens. H had no Hawthorne and F had no Frost. There was no Hemingway or Fitzgerald, no Eliot or Kuo. Instead they found stack after stack of handmade books. Some were typed, some were scribbled, some were printed out on cheap computer paper, some were stapled, some had brads, some were held together with twine.

" 'The unpublished works of Everyman,' exclaimed Mr. Librarian proudly. 'Everywoman and Everykid, too.' "

Boyd, the boy who lives next to that eerie mansion, has long been the devoted fan of Ratt. He and Margaret, who arrives in her mother's navy blue pickup, and the comic book series with a life of its own become entangled in the mysteries of the mansion and of the death of Margaret's father four years earlier. They are surrounded by quirky characters such as Mr. Librarian, Margaret's funny and exasperating little sister Sophie, and their mom, who has been barely coping since her husband's disappearance.

HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY AND NEVER BE FOUND is a haunting and fun find for middle grade readers.

...

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the GREATEST books I've ever read!, April 26, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found (Hardcover)
I was quick to judge this book by its eirie cover. I am a lover of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, but this book intrigiued me from the moment I picked it up. It is told in 3rd person unlimited formatt, written from the alternating views of both twelve year old Margaret, and Boyd, a boy who lives next to a mansion owned by Margaret's family. Boyd is an avid reader of the Ratt comics, which he picks up from the odd little Library in town. They are based on the life of the main character Ratt, who supposedly resides in the creepy mansion next to Boyds house. It all starts when Margaret and her deeply depressed mother Lizzie and her annoyingly hyperactive sister Sophie arrive at the mansion with a for sale by owner sign in the back of their blue pickup.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining, imaginative book full of quirky characters, September 13, 2002
By Wesley "Wesley" (Denton, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found (Hardcover)
I gave the book 5 stars for enjoyment. This is a fun book.

The author has given us many ways in which to see the characters and the story, by using different narratives (including the anonymous editor) and letting us get a taste of the wonderful Rat Man comic strip. I didn't find this method of switching back and forth confusing at all. I read this book as fast as I could to get to the end: to understand the mystery of the Rat Man.
I really rooted for the kids in this story. It is definitely a book about the underdog. It is also about friendship. And the power of imagination. It was very clever little book. If I had read it when I was 12, I would probably have wanted to be Rat Man, too.

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 		 Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars good, but chopping writing. for me at least
the story is good, but the writing is a little choppy in it's flow. it jumps around
Published 1 month ago by R. Pryor

4.0 out of 5 stars Creepy,interesting,and engaging mystery
The title of this book made me curious to read it,and I really got so caught up in it,that I finished it in one sitting. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Chris H.

4.0 out of 5 stars Mysteriously Cool
The book How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found is about a girl who is trying to figure out the mystery of her father's death. Read more
Published on September 23, 2007

4.0 out of 5 stars Mysteriously Cool
The book How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found is about a girl who is trying to figure out the mystery of her father's death. Read more
Published on September 23, 2007

5.0 out of 5 stars Very entertaining
Subsequently following the past four years since her father's death and the ruinous impact it has on her family, Margaret, the outcast protagonist of Sara Nickerson's debut story,... Read more
Published on May 19, 2007 by Audrey

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Book
This was an enjoyable & entertaining story. I especially liked the insert of the comic portions of the tale, made the book quite varied.
Published on February 6, 2007 by Marge

4.0 out of 5 stars How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found
What could be through all these doors? The author of How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found is Sara Nickerson. Read more
Published on December 21, 2006

5.0 out of 5 stars My Review on.... How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found
How would you feel if you didn't have any friends? If everyday you ate your lunch in the bathroom? What if your father died, but all you knew about his death was that he drowned... Read more
Published on November 2, 2006

5.0 out of 5 stars How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found
How would you feel if you didn't have any friends? If everyday you ate your lunch in the bathroom? What if your father died, but all you knew about his death was that he drowned... Read more
Published on November 2, 2006

4.0 out of 5 stars How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found
As a middle school teacher in Florida, I actually had my students read all 15 Sunshine State Recommended Books (6-8) last year and HOW TO DISAPPEAR... was among them. Read more
Published on July 23, 2006 by Drama/English teacher

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