How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found

A Review of Sara Nickerson's Offbeat and Surprising Teen Mystery

Jul 17, 2009

It's a mystery, it's an adventure, it's a supernatural thriller, and it has a graphic novel running throughout... this book is sure to please fans of any genre.

Sara Nickerson's tween novel How to Disappear and Never be Found (Harper Trophy, 2003, ISBN 0064410277) is a quirky, offbeat mystery-adventure that is sure to entertain readers ages 9 and up.

Twelve-year-old Margaret has a lot of questions. How exactly did her father, a champion swimmer, meet with his fateful death by drowning? Why won't her mother tell her anything about her father's death, or, for that matter, anything at all about their extended family?

And how come, after four years, her mother still lives in a zombie-like fog? But most of all, why did they suddenly drive out to a strange abandoned mansion and slap a FOR SALE BY OWNER sign on the front lawn?

...And Answers

Little sister Sophie doesn't have any answers, and Margaret's mother isn't talking, so it's up to Margaret to solve they mystery of her family once and for all. Armed with three clues: a swimming medal, a key, and a handwritten comic book, Margaret returns to the run-down mansion alone.

The trip to the island is unnervingly longer than she had anticipated, and as she makes her way through the dark canopy of trees which line the strange mansion's street, she realizes that what she really needs now is a friend. Enter Boyd, the lonely comic-book-obsessed boy who lives in a straight-out-of-suburbia house right next door (but seemingly oblivious to) the mysterious mansion.

A Mystery...

An exploration of the mansion reveals that its inhabitant might be a half-man half- rat creature called Ratt, the strange being who creates the handwritten comic books which methodically unveil the mystery of Margaret's father.

Boyd has collected every issue except one; the issue that Ratt mailed to Margaret's mother but which she returned to him unopened. This issue which Margaret stole from the mansion the day her mother put up the FOR SALE sign. The issue which Margaret dropped inside the mansion while running for her life. The issue which both begins and completes the tale of her father and the mysterious Ratt.

...and a Solution

Together with the help of a strange librarian (whose library only shelves unpublished manuscripts) Margaret and Boyd must solve the mystery of Ratt in order to uncover the secrets surrounding the death of Margaret's father.

About the Author

Sara Nickerson lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband, Matthew, and their son, Simon. How To Disappear and Never Be Found is her first novel. She says this story started out as a screenplay, stemming from a fantasy she had about disappearing without a trace. Inspired to write a story like My Side of the Mountain or Julie of the Wolves, a story set on an island starring kids who take risks, she combined her disappearing fantasy with the personalities of her charming nieces to create Margaret, Sophie, and the mystery of their family's secret.

The copyright of the article How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found in Teen Fiction is owned by Francine Morrissette. Permission to republish How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.