Ebook142 pages2 hours
Eyes in the Fishbowl
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
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About this ebook
Newbery Medal winner Zilpha Keatley Snyder delves into the paranormal in this story of a teenage boy who makes an extraordinary discovery
The whole thing started six years ago when Dion James was around eight or nine. He got a shoe-shining gig on the corner of Palm and Eighth, outside the big glass-and-bronze doors of Alcott-Simpson’s department store. With his unruly hair and bad limp from polio, Dion looked like a refugee. Envisioning himself one day working at Alcott-Simpson’s, he cleans up his act and starts dressing better.
Fourteen-year-old Dion still dreams of working at the luxury department store when he sees a girl with big black eyes and long black hair pursued by store detectives for stealing a sweater. A few days later, Dion is in the store when he hears a scream, and all hell breaks loose. Locked in after the store empties out, Dion sees a familiar figure: the sweater thief. Her name is Sara, and soon she and Dion are eyewitnesses to a bizarre series of events that have no rational explanation.
Who is Sara? And why is there a pair of eyes in the mink-lined fishbowl?
This ebook features an extended biography of Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
The whole thing started six years ago when Dion James was around eight or nine. He got a shoe-shining gig on the corner of Palm and Eighth, outside the big glass-and-bronze doors of Alcott-Simpson’s department store. With his unruly hair and bad limp from polio, Dion looked like a refugee. Envisioning himself one day working at Alcott-Simpson’s, he cleans up his act and starts dressing better.
Fourteen-year-old Dion still dreams of working at the luxury department store when he sees a girl with big black eyes and long black hair pursued by store detectives for stealing a sweater. A few days later, Dion is in the store when he hears a scream, and all hell breaks loose. Locked in after the store empties out, Dion sees a familiar figure: the sweater thief. Her name is Sara, and soon she and Dion are eyewitnesses to a bizarre series of events that have no rational explanation.
Who is Sara? And why is there a pair of eyes in the mink-lined fishbowl?
This ebook features an extended biography of Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
Author
Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Zilpha Keatley Snyder is the author of The Egypt Game, The Headless Cupid, and The Witches of Worm, all Newbery Honor Books. Her most recent books include The Treasures of Weatherby, The Bronze Pen, William S. and the Great Escape, and William’s Midsummer Dreams. She lives in Mill Valley, California. Visit her at ZKSnyder.com.
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Reviews for Eyes in the Fishbowl
Rating: 3.4473684736842105 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
19 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dion James is being raised by his father, living in the old family home. His dad gives music lessons and rents out rooms to local students and a family to provide income. Besides going to school, Dion has a shoeshine stand outside Alcott-Simpson’s Department Store. It is a posh store that carries pretty much everything and elegantly covers a city block. It is a place Dion has been enamoured of since about age 8 or 9. He enjoys walking through the store and has made friends among the clerks.Dion notices that the atmosphere of Alcott-Simpson has changed; something strange is going on. When he notices a dark haired girl in the store, who appears to be about his age, he wants to know her. He learns her name is Sara and they do develop a bit of a friendship, but there is a strange part of it, she cannot leave the store! There are also the “Others” that she talks of. Are the “Others” part of the reason there are less and less customers coming to the store?When Dion learns that Sara may be leaving the store, he becomes determined not to lose her. He is willing to go to any lengths to keep her in his life.This story has a fantasy side to the real life side. Through it Dion learns much about himself and also his relationship with his father. The characters learning more about themselves is a frequent theme in Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s books. A good combination in a story line for all ages.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I've read many of Ms. Snyder books... I have some in a box somewhere that I bought in 5th or 6th grade. I've always enjoyed them, although they were a bit odd. This one was just more odd than usual. I'm not saying I didn't like it, the ending left me with no real explanation of the events.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Fourteen-year-old Dion, discontented with the relaxed life-style his musician-father leads, and longing for a more conventional, material existence, spends much of his time at the upscale Alcott-Simpson Department Store. But as strange things begin to happen at the store, Dion finds himself falling in love with the beautiful Sara, who seems to be at the center of it all. Is Dion's first love a shop-lifter, or something far more dangerous?This book, out-of-print for some time, is Snyder's fifth novel, and the weakest of her early work. Although quite perceptive in her appreciation that youthful rebellion can manifest itself in many ways, the author fails to imbue Eyes in the Fishbowl with her trademark blend of breathless suspense and wonder at the intoxicating power of the imagination. I found myself mostly indifferent, both to the protagonist and to the supernatural possibilities of the story. More than any other early ZKS work, this had a dated feel to it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Currently out of print, "Eyes in the Fishbowl" is likely to be ignored among Zilpha Keatley Snyder's books today. This a great tragedy, for this is one of her most tense and gripping stories: the first-person tale of a teenaged boy who discovers mystery and ghostly secrets in a 1960s department store. The first-person narrative alone distinguishes this one from most of Snyder's work; on top of that, the advanced age range (clearly "young adult" in this instance) allows her to make a few more pointed comments than she would in a younger child's book. The usual issues of benign neglect and the distant parent are here, but just under the surface, Snyder lets frisson of the late '60s boil away - leading to little inferred references to drug use and, most remarkably, some unusually sexualized characterization.Regular Snyder readers will find a lot of familiarity in the basic set-up of Dion, the fourteen-year-old underdog, and his obsession with the haunting events at Alcott-Simpson's department store. The setting is more urbanized than most of Snyder's work, but she treats the store as a character in much the way she usually does a creepy old house. And although Snyder has made a career out of flawed but enchanting characters, the appearance of the mysterious Sara is downright dangerous here - and leads Dion into a story that would, frankly, make an excellent family thriller film. As usual, the author manages to find a way to be sympathetic with each character without imposing her views or preferences...and in this case, there's an unsettling element of distrust, too.I was so pleased to rediscover this lost classic. Although I'm generally quite happy to re-read any Snyder book from my childhood, I was afraid "Eyes in the Fishbowl" would prove itself a simple placeholder. Not so. Before re-reading, all I could remember from being eight years old was that I found the book very scary...and now, I completely understand why. I highly recommend any casual Snyder fan seek a copy of this one out.
Book preview
Eyes in the Fishbowl - Zilpha Keatley Snyder
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