Book cover for The Schwa was Here by Neal Shusterman

The Schwa was Here

2006 Released
240 Pages
3-4 Hours
★ 3.92 9,086 ratings
Audiobook Unavailable
Hardback Unavailable
Puffin BooksISBN 9781101660522

The Printz Honor award-winning author of Scythe presents a quirky young adult novel, one teen boy holds the secret power of invisibility—and the other sees him.

“Antsy tells his story in a bubbly Beastie Boys-meets-Bugs Bunny Brooklynese that keeps the pages flipping.”—School Library Journal, starred review

“This is the kind of offbeat story I love best.”—Gordon Korman, author of Son of the Mob

“Tantalizing . . . a little off-balance, a little smudged and smirky.”—Time Out New York Kids

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 Bonano—and I can tell you what’s true and what’s not, ‘cause I was there. I was the one who realized the Schwa was “functionally invisible” and used it to make some big bugs. But I was also the one who caused him more grief than a friend should. So if you all just shut up and listen, I’ll spill everything. Unless, of course, “the Schwa Effect” wipes him out of my brain before I’m done . . .

Neal Shusterman

Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of more than fifty books, including Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award; Scythe, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book; Dry, which he cowrote with his son, Jarrod Shusterman; Unwind, which won more than thirty domestic and international awards; Bruiser, which was on a dozen state lists; The Schwa Was Here, winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award; and Game Changer, which debuted as an indie top-five best seller. He is the winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for the body of his work. You can visit him online at storyman.com.

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