Eyes in the Fishbowl

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.