How to Stay Invisible

by Maggie C. Rudd

Overview

My Side of the Mountain meets How to Steal a Dog in this high-stakes and heartfelt middle-grade story of a young boy and his dog surviving on their own in the woods.

Being alone is something Raymond is used to.

Twelve-year-old Raymond Hurley has never had a place to call home. His free-wheeling parents move their family from town to town, and he’s living in a trailer in a brand-new state when one day, they just up and abandon him. All alone with nothing but a duffle bag full of clothes and his reliable pup, Rosie, he is forced to live in the woods behind his middle school.

With a fishing pole in hand and survival guide checked out from the library, Raymond scrapes by and doesn’t tell anyone his secret. This isn’t the first time he’s had to rely on himself. However, when winter days get colder and finding food becomes nearly impossible, Raymond makes new friends, including a curious coyote, in unexpected places. Soon, he learns that his fate will depend not just on his wilderness skills, but on the people and animals he chooses to trust.

In How to Stay Invisible, Maggie C. Rudd takes readers on a journey of survival that speaks to friendship, adventure, and the everyday wonders of nature. In middle school, blending in is easy but sometimes the braver thing is being seen.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374390341
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	06/27/2023
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	329,627
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Maggie C. Rudd is from rural North Carolina where she lives with her family. When she isn’t writing, she is teaching middle school, making forts, or outside getting muddy with her kids. She is the author of the picture books On the Fourth of July and I’ll Hold Your Hand.
Maggie C. Rudd is the author of I'll Hold Your Hand, On the Fourth of July, On the Days After Christmas, On the Last Day of School and the middle grade novel, How To Stay Invisible. When she isn't writing, she is teaching high school, making forts, or outside getting muddy with her kids. She lives in rural North Carolina with her family.

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/24/2023

Rudd (I’ll Hold Your Hand) weaves an uplifting tale of connection and found family featuring an unhoused tween. Twelve-year-old, white-cued Raymond is used to his unreliable parents constantly moving house. So when he starts at yet another middle school—this time in River Mill, N.C.—he does what he does best: keeps his head down and tries to stay invisible. But when his parents abruptly leave, abandoning him and his dog Rosie outside their locked, rented trailer, Raymond takes to the woods to avoid state care. Thus begins months of living in a tree hollow, where he contends with wild animals and faces hunger, bitter cold, and sickness. Keeping his situation secret, Raymond continues attending school and makes new friends—classmates, adults, and animals alike—who inadvertently help Raymond come to terms with his harsh reality and prompt him to question the long-term effects of his solitude and secrecy. Via introspective third-person prose, Rudd juxtaposes a typical middle school milieu of crushes and school projects against Raymond’s harrowing position. A hearty dose of existentialism, depictions of necessary wilderness skills, and ruminations on the perseverance of the human spirit permeate this meditative survival read. Ages 10–14. Agent: Mary Cummings, Great River Literary. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Beehive Children’s Fiction Award Nominee

"A worthy match for My Side of the Mountain and Hatchet." —Horn Book, starred review

"Rudd weaves an uplifting tale of connection and found family." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"The Outsiders meets Hatchet in this story that follows Raymond’s ordeal to both survive in the winter woods of North Carolina and attend middle school without anyone finding out how he lives... Completely devoid of cheap drama, this tightly written, understated narrative tells its story through finely drawn characters, intensely realistic atmosphere and setting, and a protagonist who will capture readers’ hearts with both his courage and his creative survival skills." —Kirkus, starred review

"This refreshingly genuine book on resilience and survival will enthrall readers from chapter one. Recommended for collections where survival books and heartfelt fiction are popular." —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

★ 2023-03-14
When 12-year-old Raymond’s parents abandon him, he takes to the woods to survive.

The Outsiders meets Hatchet in this story that follows Raymond’s ordeal to both survive in the winter woods of North Carolina and attend middle school without anyone finding out how he lives. Trying to balance keeping up his grades with living in a hollow, overturned tree with his dog, Rosie, existing on fish he catches and food he scavenges from the dumpster outside his school, Raymond stoically accepts his reality even as he wishes for parents who cared for him. The narrative poignancy of Raymond’s being cold, hungry, and doing homework by the light of a fire is grounded by descriptions of creative survival techniques: how to catch minnows using a plastic water bottle, how to make fire with a battery and foil gum wrappers, and how to build a lean-to with branches. Completely devoid of cheap drama, this tightly written, understated narrative tells its story through finely drawn characters, intensely realistic atmosphere and setting, and a protagonist who will capture readers’ hearts with both his courage and his creative survival skills. All secondary characters—irrepressible NASCAR-loving classmate Harlin; red-haired love interest Lexi; emotionally torn old man Stigs, who offers friendship; and the teachers, both callous and obtuse—are drawn with originality and verve. Characters read default White.

An exceptional story of courage. (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews