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Title details for Almost Invisible by Maureen Garvie - Available

Almost Invisible

by Maureen Garvie
ebook
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1 of 1 copy available

Jewel is on the run from an abusive home situation and furtively living at school. After Maya discovers her classmate's secret, should she tell? Or can she help Jewel on her own?

Thirteen-year-old Jewel has been holding her life together ever since her older sister, Charmaine, suddenly left home with no forwarding address. She tried to find Charmaine once, but that only brought her family to the attention of the police. Now Jewel keeps her head down at school, looks after her special-needs brother as well as she can, and tries to steer clear of her parents and their shady friends.

When her father's friend comes into her bedroom one night, Jewel finally understands why Charmaine had to leave home. Soon she is on the run herself. When her food runs out, Jewel chances upon a new place to live — the cupboard of the art room at school. It turns out to be surprisingly easy to live under the radar when you have perfected the art of being almost invisible.

That is, until Jewel's classmates, Maya and Lily, discover her washing her hair in the girls' washroom at school and making breakfast in the lunchroom. They take her on as their project, finding her places to sleep, fixing her hair and wardrobe — even as they can't quite understand her terror, or why she is so afraid of seeking adult help. But the girls help keep Jewel and her secret safe — until they no longer can.

Told in the alternating voices of Maya and Jewel, this is a thought-provoking and moving story about loyalty, privilege, keeping secrets, and what it means to be a good friend.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6
Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3
Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 1, 2018

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781773060798

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781773060798
      • File size: 666 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      July 15, 2018
      A 13-year-old girl flees her abusive home to live secretly in her school.Jewel tolerates her parents' abuse, from the theft of her babysitting money to outright violence, in order to protect her developmentally disabled kid brother. When one of her dad's drunken friends tries to rape her, her parents turn a blind eye. Jewel knows that she needs to run away for her own safety. She spends 10 days roughing it before she runs out of carefully hoarded food and returns to town--and to school. Jewel attends classes by day and sleeps in the art-room supply cupboard at night. Maya and Lily, two well-off girls, notice her odd behavior and seek her out. In alternating sections, Maya and Jewel share their perspectives on Jewel's solo adventure. Though Maya's aid is invaluable, it also leads to Jewel's discovery by adults. Maya and Jewel, who both appear to be white, come from sharply different social classes. With no other poor families present in the story, the poverty of Jewel's parents becomes inextricably tied to their abuse. Their bad grammar, cursing, cigarette smoking, motorcycles, and clothing ("way too young for a mother, cleavage," thinks Maya) all paint a lazily stereotyped picture of criminal trash, in opposition to the kindly rich parents found elsewhere. When Jewel's situation is wrapped up tidily, that frees Maya up for her next rescue project: a Syrian refugee.The tale of Jewel's determined struggle is moving but weakened by Maya's bad case of savior-itis. (Fiction. 9-11)

      COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • The Horn Book

      January 1, 2019
      Maya and her friend Lily discover that their grade-seven classmate Jewel has been living at school; Jewel's sister, who protected her from the worst of her parents' abuses, has disappeared, and Jewel is not safe at home. Garvie explores socioeconomic privilege (wealthier Maya initially sees Jewel as kind of a project), secret-keeping, and the nature of home. The quiet novel ends with a better (not perfect) situation for Jewel and believable growth in Maya.

      (Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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