The back cover reads:
"They say his clothes blend into the background no matter where he stands. They say if you stare at him long enough, you can see what's written on the wall behind him. They say a lot of things about the Schwa, but one thing's for sure: No one ever noticed him. Except me. My name is Antsy Bonana00 and I can tell you what's true and what's not, 'cause I was there. So if you all just shut up and listen, I'll tell you everything there is to know about the Schwa, from how he got his name to what really happened with his mom. I'll spill everything. Unless, of course, "the Schwa Effect" wipes him out of my brain before I'm done..."
RXN:
Phenominal. It's got a fantastic amount of sarcasm, wit, and attitude. I love this kid's analogies and similes. I didn't start dog-earring the pages until I flipping remembered that I have a response blog. I took about two days to read this one. I'd love to use it in my classroom. It's the type of writing that kids love- very in your face and anti-authority... but in a good way. There are few solid themes in here, but the most obvious one is sight/blindness. Who wouldn't want to read a book that begins with the chapter title "Manny Bullpucky Gets His Sorry Butt Hurled Off the Marine Park Bridge." There's a kid running around school in a speedo, a dummy made out of unbreakable materials, and someone who has a collection of unique paperclips- like one that's been to the moon or held Michael Jordan's contract together. It's hilarious. He's an Italian kid from the Bronx, so you know that he's got this endless string of wit and attitude that can do nothing but make you want to pee yourself.
A few showstoppers:
"Life is like a bad haircut. At first it looks awful, then you kind of get used to it, and before you know it, it grows out and you gotta get another haircut that maybe won't be so bad, unless of course you keep going to Superclips, where the hairstylists are so terrible they oughta be using safety scissors, and when they're done you look like your head got caught in a ceiling fan" (70).
"Then it occurred to me exactly what my place in this family was, and had always been. In spite of my wisecracking, pain-in-the-neck ways, I was the clip that held things together. Unnoticed. Taken for granted. Okay, maybe I'm giving myself too much credit here, but I'd be damned if I was gonna keep on being the family paper clip" (107).
"Parents were supposed to know the answer, and even if they didn't they could usually fake it really well" (109).
"The way I see it, truth only looks good when you're looking at it from far away. It's kind of like that beautiful girl you see on the street when you're riding past in the bus, because beautiful people never ride the bus-- at least not when I'm on it. usually I get the people with so much hair in their nose, it looks like they're growing sea urchins in there-- or those women with gray hair all teased out so you can see their scalp underneath, making me wonder if I blew on their hair, would it all fly away like dandelion seeds? So you're sitting on the bus and you look out through dandelion heads, and there she is, this amazing girl walking by on the street and you think if you could only get off this stupid bus and introduce yourself to her, your life would change.
The thing is, she's not as perfect as you think, and if you ever got off the bus to introduce yourself, you'd find out she's got a fake took that's turning a little bit green, breath like a racehorse, and a zit on her forehead that keeps drawing your eyes toward it like a black hole. This girl is truth. She's not so pretty, not so nice. But then, once you get to know her, all that stuff doesn't seem to matter. Except maybe for the breath, but that's why there's Altoids" (204-205).
"How has a theory that involves aliens and cosmic string theory, but trust me, you don't want to hear it" (227).
LMAO. cosmic string theory?! Who says that?!!
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