The Watcher

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What happens when one of the authors of the Bunnicula series (novels for young adolescents starring a vampire bunny) decides to write a book for older teens? The result is not what you'd expect. The Watcher is a serious story of a confused, broken, abused girl who observes the world instead of participating in it. By alternating four points of view, author James Howe explores the watcher and the watched--revealing how fantasy can drown us and how expressing our needs out loud can save us. This is a beautifully written meditation on how we perceive others and ourselves. Howe abandons vampires, yet still leaves us with a haunted feeling.


From Publishers Weekly
The lives of three troubled teens converge at a seaside resort; PW called the work "a blend of allegory and stark realism [that] offers a host of ironies for readers to explore." Ages 12-up. (June.- offers a host of ironies for readers to explore." Ages 12-up. (June) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
Grade 7-9. Not knowing her name, the other people on the beach call her the Watcher. She brings her notebook to the same spot each day, and she writes and she watches. She watches Chris, the lifeguard. She watches Evan, his sister Callie, and their parents. And she writes. Margaret weaves herself, and those she watches, into a fantasy in which an angel rescues a lonely girl from the clutches of a beast, and then returns the girl to her long-lost royal family. But Margaret's fairy tale is in reality a silent prayer for rescue from her real-life beast, a father who abuses her when she's "been bad." Her fairy-tale rescue becomes reality as Chris and Evan unwittingly witness the abuse and hear her painful, reluctant admission, "My father hurts me." Howe deftly alternates the story Margaret writes with chapters about Chris and Evan and his family in the same way that fantasy and reality intermingle in Margaret's life. As readers come to the frightening realization of what the fairy tale means, they are hurtled toward a gripping scene in which Margaret's father repeatedly holds her head under water. The Watcher is a novel so powerful that even after the last page is read, and Margaret is mercifully saved, her story may be reflected upon again and again.?Leigh Ann Jones, Carroll Middle School, Southlake, TXCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Louis Metzger
James Howe has perfect pitch, whatever age he's writing for.... And now this popular, prolific author has gone beyond even his own broad boundaries with his brave, dark, remarkable new novel. In the past Howe books, the sunny main characters, both animal and human, sometimes came across people in trouble ... But in The Watcher all three young people who propel the story are themselves in serious trouble--each, in his or her own way, is drowning.


From Booklist
Gr. 8-12. Although Howe has certainly dealt with dark subject matter before--alcoholism, for example--he's much better known for his light, clever middle-grade fiction and picture books. Consequently, this somber, ambitious novel (about child abuse) for teens is likely to be a bit of a surprise. Howe's fictional framework is also unusual. It's a murky, convoluted narrative comprising the viewpoints of three characters: Evan, whose summer at the beach is shadowed by fears of his parents' divorcing; lifeguard Chris, struggling to find his place in a family haunted by death and guilt; and a solitary teenage girl who watches and spins a fantasy around herself and the two young men. The structure is awkward at times, and the fantasy heavy-handed. Still, the atmospherics and the melodramatics are seductive enough to keep reader curiosity high until the horrific climax, when the lives of the three troubled teens come together at last. Not a first purchase, but there's still a readership out there. Stephanie Zvirin


From Kirkus Reviews
A sensitively written novel about families, abuse, and the power of words from Howe (Pinky and Rex and the Bully, 1996, etc.). Chris is a golden young man: lifeguard at a beach on Long Island, just out of high school, and trying to determine what he should do next. Evan is a younger teen, caring for his little sister, Callie, and admiring Chris. Both boys notice that watching them is a silent girl, who sits on the steps looking out at the beach each day, and writing in her notebook. Her name is Margaret, and she is composing a fairy tale about her life, with Chris as her angel and Evan as her adoring brother, rescuing her from the Beast--her abusive father. Unfolding delicately, this summer-long dance also reveals the loss in Chris's family and the struggle of Evan's parents to stay together. Howe's portrayal gains strength through the goodness of the characters and the honesty of the details of their lives. Evan is deeply devoted to his little sister and his parents, even as he is tempted by a gang of ``Gap-ad Huckleberry Finns''; Chris knows that to find himself, he needs to solve the riddle of his family's loss; and Margaret, who has survived through myth and isolation, rescues herself by finding the words to say what her father does to her. Emotionally compelling to a heart-stopping conclusion. (Fiction. 12+) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
Perfect Strangers Every day, she sits at the top of the stairs leading to the beach. Always writing in her little notebook. Always watching. Watching the loving big brother, so caring and attentive to his little sister. Watching the handsome lifeguard with his golden tan. But no matter how closely she watches, she can't begin to know the secrets behind the perfect facades of their lives. And they can't begin to know the truth about the strange, sad girl who each day sits alone -- and watches.


Card catalog description
As she sits watching a seemingly perfect family and a handsome lifeguard on the beach, a lonely, troubled girl projects herself into the fantasy lives she has created for them.


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The three main characters in The Watcher are a far cry from Bunnicula and the Howliday Inn series, but they are equally as likely to capture a reader's attention and stay with them long after the book is finished. Margaret, thirteen years old, is the watcher whose only friend and sanctuary is her journal. Her estranged mother usually is locked in her bedroom listening to loud opera recordings, and her father is verbally and physically abusive. Each chapter begins with entries from her journal, in which she fantasizes about the people she sees around at the beach as a way of escaping her own abusive life. Chris, eighteen, is a lifeguard. He is at a crossroads in his life, torn over whether to try and please his father, whom he never can seem to please, or to continue on his own path. Evan, fourteen, struggles with parents who are distant from each other and from him. Callie, his eight-year-old sister, is convinced their parents are going to divorce, and Evan can't discourage her from thinking so because he believes it, too. Howe weaves the three characters' stories into a fine book that explores one's perceptions of other people. Margaret, Chris, and Evan all meet in a climactic ending that begins to solve their adolescent problems, but Howe craftily leaves the reader wanting to know more. Does Chris go to work with his father or does he go to college? What is the problem between Evan's parents? After Chris and Evan see Margaret's father forcing her head into a sink full of water, does Margaret go into foster care? I want to see the sequels already. Fans of Howe's middle-level books will not be shocked or disappointed by his realistic fiction. He handles these more mature topics in a way that bridges the younger reader to YA literature. VOYA Codes: 5Q 4P M J (Hard to imagine it being any better written, Broad general YA appeal, Middle School-defined as grades 6 to 8 and Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9). Read all 7 "From The Critics" >


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