How to Stay Invisible by Maggie C. Rudd
How to Stay Invisible is a Juvenile Realistic Fiction selection at its best…a page-turner about survival that I found hard to put down.
Imagine being a middle schooler and homeless. That is just what Raymond was…utterly alone and homeless. His unstable parents had often said that they would be better off without him, but he never thought they would abandon him. After having been in 3 different middle schools in the month of November, Raymond, who now lived in North Carolina, walked 3 miles home from school one day to find his much-loved dog, Rosie, and his duffel bag on the steps of his small, abandoned, rented trailer. The doors were locked. His landlord told him his parents were unable to pay their rent…and left.
Now, Raymond had to stay invisible so people would not find out that he was homeless and once again, be placed in a children’s home or foster care. Those were the last places he wanted to be.
So what was he to do? Raymond set up camp in the woods behind his River Mill Middle School. What did he use for shelter? How did he stay warm through the winter? What did he do to find food for himself and Rosie? How did he stay clean? Did the small coyote that joined them do any harm?
In school, teachers were fond of Raymond and didn’t know that he was homeless, but they did sense something was amiss. Although he was cruelly bullied by some, Harlin, a talkative chap who had his own unfortunate issues, became a very loyal and helpful friend.
Read this well-written, true-to-life story of misfortune to see how Raymond survived. Did his parents return? What did Skigs, an older man that Raymond met while fishing, have to do with the story? Is there a happy ending or not?
Enjoy, not the unfortunate circumstances in this story, but the reading of this breathtaking book about survival.
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