The Schwa Was Here
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| The Schwa Was Here | |
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| Author | Neal Shusterman |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Young adult novel |
| Publisher | Dutton Books Penguin Books |
| Publication date | 2004 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 228 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 9780525471820 |
The Schwa Was Here is a young adult novel by Neal Shusterman. Published by Penguin Books in 2004, it is about a friendship between in your face Antsy and Calvin Schwa, who is capable of seemingly not being noticed by the people around him.
The book received critical acclaim upon its release, receiving a starred review from the Library Journal[1] and a positive review from Booklist.[2] It also received the 2005 Boston Globe/Horn Book Magazine award for fiction and poetry.[3]
The book has been optioned by The Disney Channel for a telefilm project. Shusterman, who previously worked with the channel on the project Pixel Perfect, has been lined up to write the script for the project.[4]
[edit] Plot summary
In the beginning of the story, Antsy’s dad asks him and his friends to try to break Manny Bullpucky, a dummy made of seemingly indestructible plastic. Antsy, Howard and Ira do test number one, throwing Manny off the Marine Park Bridge. At first, it looks like Manny’s broken as his head goes flying like a cannonball. Then a boy out of nowhere shows up with Manny’s head and reveals that Manny didn’t break, his head just separated. The boy's name is Calvin Schwa, or "The Schwa." When they realize Manny’s not broken, Antsy, Howard, Ira and the Schwa think about trying to blow him up. When Ira gets mad, Calvin leaves, and Ira starts saying things about him, like how his eyes are the same color as the sky, his shoes are the color of the ground, and if you look at him long enough, you can see right through him. Antsy decides to test if the Schwa is actually invisible.
Antsy hears a story about how the Schwa got his last name. His great-grandparents moved to America from Europe, and when the guard asked for his name, Mister Schwartz was so excited said “Schwa” and fell dead. Ira says he heard Calvin's mom disappeared at a shopping market; one second she was in the ten items or less aisle, and in the next, she was gone, with just a jar of pickles and a stack of coupons left behind. The other story was that Calvin’s dad cut his wife into 50 pieces and mailed each of them to a different state.
The Schwa does seem to be invisible, since in science class, he is waving his hand in clear view of Mr. Werthog, who just looks right past him, until finally Antsy says Calvin is there and Mr. Werthog sees him. Later as Antsy is taping a firecracker to Manny’s head, Ira starts talking about the Schwa, and how he’s like the tree in the forest that no one's around to hear. If he walked into a room without saying something, someone could walk in, walk out, and not realize he was in there. Of course, Calvin was there listening to everything. After they blew Manny up the Schwa said they should experiment on him, to see if he’s really invisible.
The first test was to find out how many people can see the "Schwa" in your standard classroom. It concluded four out of five people do not even see the Schwa.
The second test had Calvin dressed up in a cat costume and an orange sombrero singing “God Bless America” at the top of his lungs. Antsy asked people coming out of the bathroom if there was anything weird in there. One kid said something about a toilet that wouldn't flush. But no one who saw him said he was wearing an orange sombrero or a cat costume, and only one kid thought he had a tail. Out of 15 people, only four said he was singing God Bless America, so the Schwa is still barely noticed when acting and dressed like a freak. Of course on the basketball court, many games were won passing the ball to Calvin, who nobody had seen until the ball was in the hoop.
In test three, the Schwa could get through an airport with an iron bar in his pocket. Since metal detectors were there, the alarms went off because of the bar, but no one saw the Schwa until then. Thing is, an iron bar in the Schwa's pocket is still an iron bar. This was the last test on the Schwa, on account of how they all got in trouble.
Stealth Economics was going well, as every day people were paying to see the Schwa do something. One lost bet of $22 was for the Schwa to wear nothing but a Speedo all day; he made it to third period, though. Then came the Mega Bet of $54 to sneak into Old Man Crawley’s house. Mr.Crawley shut down the egg supply for two months in their town for being egged by antsy's older brother, and for the bet Calvin had to steal a dog bowl from a boy named Wendell Tiggor's. On the bus, Antsy teases Calvin and says he’ll probably trip on a dog bowl on the way in to Mr. Crawley’s place.
At Crawley’s house the Schwa finds the horrible truth: every single dog bowl is nailed to the floor, and a dog is looking right at him. Then with the dogs comes Mr. Crawley, who called the police. Luckily, Crawley tells the police it was a false alarm. Unluckily they now have to work for Crawley for free, dog walking his 14 Afghans.
After a few days of dog-walking slavery, Antsy goes to the Schwa’s house for dinner, to see how bad it really is, since the Schwa says his dad forgets to make him dinner some nights. At the Schwa’s house Antsy finds out his dad is terminally absentminded. After a while, the two of them go to the Schwa’s room and Calvin shows Antsy his paper clip collection that included one that had been in space, and one that had held the original lyrics of Hey, Jude.
On the third week of Antsy and the Schwa walking the dogs, Crawley says the Schwa will walk all the dogs for $3.50 a day. Antsy has gained the male escort role, 25¢ an hour to watch his granddaughter, Lexie. Lexie is about Antsy's age and Clavin's age. She has come to visit her grandfather .Later Howie, Ira, and Antsy were trying to figure out what’s wrong with Lexie. Howie and Ira pretend he’s not there and make him really mad and he breaks the game they were playing. Of course, the “Schwa Effect” made them almost completely forget.
Finally, Antsy goes to Crawley’s and finds out what’s wrong with Lexie: she is blind. Antsy and Lexie start walking dogs, and the Schwa walks up. Since Lexie knows he's there, Calvin jumps up and down in happiness. After being demoted to dog-walker again Antsy walks home and hears his parents arguing again, and it’s the Big One, the biggest fight Antsy’s parents will ever have. Antsy is worried but his family says they have it under control.
Antsy walked right in there and infuriated his mom, saying that his dad’s food is better. Later, Crawley broke his hip again; the paramedics came and took Crawley and Antsy to the hospital. The next day, Antsy went to Lexie’s school. He thought she dumped him for the Schwa, but it was just the opposite; she had fired him to dump the Schwa. They went to a movie with no headphones so Antsy had to report everything to Lexie, and the audience was getting slightly annoyed.
Later at dinner at a burger place, Lexie ordered the manager to read every single burger on the menu, and this was one of those places famous for having about 14,000 different hamburgers on the menu.
One of Antsy neighbors, Ms, Greenblat, found Manny’s head while cutting her hedges. She died of three heart attacks, and the police were called. Once Antsy got Manny's head back, Ira, Howie, Antsy, and Lexie were all thinking of a new way to destroy Manny.
The next day, Howie, Ira, Antsy, Lexie, her Seeing Eye dog Moxie, and the Schwa were all at the subway, waiting for Manny to be crushed by the train. In no time at all a subway express came and Manny becomes nothing more than shards of plastic.
Lexie dumped Antsy, and he went to the Schwa’s house, where he heard Calvin's darkest memory, about the day his mom disappeared. He said that if no one remembered him, he’d just disappear, so he wanted to do something big so everyone would know about him. One night Antsy sneaks out to the store where the Schwa’s mother disappeared. He meets the night butcher who says he saw what happened to the Schwa’s mother.
The next morning Operation: Traumatize Crawley was put into effect. Lexie and Antsy blindfolded Mr. Crawley, put him in a helicopter and flew him all around Brooklyn.
Later that night, the Schwa takes Antsy to see something in an old abandoned building. As night falls, Antsy sees what it is: a billboard with the Schwa’s face on it, and in big bold letters: CALVIN SCHWA WAS HERE. Unfortunately, the highway the billboard is on is closed for construction, so no one else will see the sign that cost the Schwa all of his college fund.
Lexie picked up Antsy and the Schwa and took them to the supermarket to find out about the Schwa’s mom. It turned out that she ran off with the butcher. The Schwa freaked out, and when he got home he found out his dad has been hiding letters from the Schwa's mom.
The next day, Antsy found out his dad had been fired from Pisher Plastic. When Antsy went to Crawley to see why he had his dad fired, it turned out Crawley had a restaurant he was giving to Antsy’s dad to do whatever he pleases with it. As well, Crawley said he would pay Antsy and Lexie $100 a month to “kidnap” him again. Antsy is so happy he calls the Schwa, only his line doesn’t work, and his house is spotless. The Schwa and his dad are gone. This made Antsy so mad he went to a burger place and wrote "THE SCHWA WAS HERE" on the bathroom stall.
The next day, Antsy started calling every M. Taylor in Queens, the person who was selling the Schwa’s house the day he saw it. One day, he finally struck gold. Except, she says the Schwa is with Antsy himself. Antsy’s THE SCHWA WAS HERE was everywhere ever since he wrote it on the bathroom stall with marker, from Brooklyn to Honolulu. Six months after the Schwa disappeared a letter came for Antsy. The Schwa was in Key West with his mom, and clipped to the Schwa’s letter was a picture of him and his mom. Holding the picture to the note was one of the Schwa’s special paper clips: the one that had been in space.
[edit] Main characters
"Antsy" Anthony Bonano- The book is from his main point of view. A middle child in his family with "middle child syndrome" meets the Schwa while trying to throw Manny off a bridge. He later becomes Mr. Crawley's dog walker and later Lexie's escort.
Calvin Schwa- The kid who is unnoticed by every one. He blends in with the environment. He has the "Schwa effect" he and Antsy put it to good use by placing bets and getting cash.
Lexis "Lexie" Crawley- A blind girl. Mr. Crawleys granddaughter. She became blind when she fell out of a stroller and hit her head on a curb. She tends to understand things better. Antsy and Schwa have been assigned to watch after her. Becomes Antsy's girlfriend, but they break up. Also normally worried for Calvin.
Ira- One of Antsy's best friends. He wants to go into movie making and is a great film maker. He is very skeptical about the Schwa and trys to ignore and avoid him.
Howie-Another one of Antsy's best friend. He is very book smart, but not street smart. He doesn't really think outside the box.
Mr.Crawley-The old man who no one dares to find. He is the highest in power in Anthony's city.
