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| The Watcher | 
 enlarge | Authors: James Howe, Betsy Imershien
Publisher: Atheneum
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $16.94 (100%)
New (27) Used (64) Collectible (2) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  114 reviews
Sales Rank: 1516416
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 184
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.1 x 0.4
ISBN: 0689801866
EAN: 9780689801860
ASIN: 0689801866
Publication Date: May 1, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Very Good+ Copy First Edition Stated!!!!!!!! Ships within one Business day. Satisfaction guaranteed.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
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.
Product Description
A mysterious girl sits on top of the steps overlooking the beach, occasionally recording her observations in a notebook, as she watches a boy and a lifeguard and makes up heroic stories about their lives."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 109 more reviews...
 Uplifting and compelling October 21, 2008
Every few years, I stumble upon this book while going through my bookshelves and have to give my well-worn copy yet another read. Even as the book's generous language and brilliant symbolism made my soul rejoice, The Watcher broke my heart time and time again. While the three main plots might be called unoriginal, in Howe's capable hands they become archetypal rather than hackneyed as he weaves their seemingly disparate threads together to form a beautiful literary tapestry.
Although the main subject of the story is of abuse, Howe's overall theme is of hope - and this is the message I always remember, long after I close the book and return it to my shelf, waiting for the day when it is rediscovered.
Good book must read!! January 25, 2008
Within the pages of The Watcher, written by James Howe, the story is told through the eyes of a young girl, Margaret. Her main pleasure seems to be that she studies people, and watches their daily lifestyles. Howe does a splended job in combining the lives of complete strangers, in a way which will keep a reader guessing at how they are all related till the very end. This tail shows an abused girl who just wants a perfect life, the one that everyone else seems to have. Though the the story is brought together by the "watcher", the seemingly perfect lives of others are shown for what they really are.
The book The Watcher, was a really enjoyable book because of the number of point of views it has. One of the book's pleasing parts was how James Howe makes seperate subplots at then end combines them and it turns into the main plot. One of the dissapointments of The Watcher is how James Howe doesn't make the Margaret's name clear in the beginning. James Howe is really talented at writing dramatic irony by, writing the watcher (Margaret) as who belives people as having perfect lives but in reality their lifes are just as bad as the Margaret's life. Overall The Watcher was a fantastic book and hopefully you pick up this book in the future.
 Imagining Perfection July 1, 2007
It is summertime at the beach. Teenager Evan is there with his parents and his little sister Callie. The family appears to be having a great time. Evan and Callie play together in the sand and their parents take pictures of the whole thing. However, in reality Evan and Callie are worried that their parents are going to get divorced, because they seem so distant from each other.
Chris is a lifeguard, seemingly full of confidence. But his parents don't interact much with him, especially his father who feels responsible for the death of Chris' older brother when he was four, before Chris was even born.
On the stairs leading down the the beach sits a young teenaged girl, writing in a notebook. She doesn't know anything about the inner lives of Chris and Evan, but she imagines Chris is a beautiful angel who will save he from her life, or she imagines herself as a sister to Evan and Callie, who will someday reclaim her.
Everyone who sees this girl watching the beach thinks she is strange and creepy. They have no idea what is going on in her life, but she has hope that someone will figure it out in time to do some good.
I liked this story being told from different points of view, so we could see that nobody was exactly what he or she seemed to be. I also liked that each character was dealing with problems of his or her own. I was confused, though, about Margaret's life at the beginning of the story. Her inner world was so mixed up with reality, it was hard to separate the two.
A great, classic summer read June 12, 2007
Every summer for a few years I'd read this book when my family went to the beach for vacation for a week. The story is set at the beach, which makes it more enjoyable. The book is strange, depressing, hopeful and a fantasy. I absolutely love this book and hold it dear to me. I'm 20 years old now... and still I cherish this and plan to read it again this summer when I go to the beach. :)
A Definite Success February 8, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Watcher is told in the points of view of three troubled teens: Evan, who is coping with the very likely possibility of his parents getting divorced and wondering if he is a loser because he spends his time on the beach with his little sister Cally instead of with the cool crowd he sees every day; Chris, just out of high school and trying to ignore the fact his parents will never love him as much as his dead brother; and Margaret, who the theme centers on. Every day she comes to the beach and does two things: write in her notebook and watch Chris and Evan and his family. Both boys notice her watching them, and Evan, who is a bit paranoid of what other people think of him, thinks she's writing about what a loser he is. In truth Margaret is writing a fairy tale fitting everybody she knows into it. She is a long-lost princess, Evan is her adoring brother Evario, Chris is her guardian angel, her pianist mother is a music box, and her abusive father is The Beast. I won't give away the ending, but it made me cry like a baby for fifteen minutes,read the ending again, and cry some more. The Watcher makes some good points about how we can drown ourselves in fantasy, not to judge things at a first look, and to open up when something is wrong. Margaret's stories and poems are beautiful(And the angel came/And the beast was slain/And the doll's enchantment fell away),I could understand the characters, and it is very good. The only reason I gave it 4 stars was because the pace is a little slow and Margaret's metaphors might fly over the heads of some kids. Despite this, an excellent read.
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