El Libro Invisible

Gr 4-6-C sar is unhappy and apprehensive at having to start the year at yet another new school. His father is an author who writes children's books and who moves the family from town to town in search of inspiration. The boy is immediately befriended by Lucia, an avid reader who soon learns about his father's profession and pleads with C sar to show her his father's current manuscript. The children resort to much subterfuge in order to read pages as the unwitting author produces them. Readers discover the plot of this other book along with C sar and Lucia. In it, a princess stumbles upon an invisible book and must set out on a dangerous quest with her faithful sidekick to learn the key to reading the text. The plots intertwine as the children deal with school bullies and interfering adults in order to read a book about two other children also facing dangers in order to get at a book. The likable characters face situations familiar to any adolescent. The occasional use of the vosotros verb form is minimally intrusive within the universal themes of adolescence. Personal growth, family situations, and love of reading are presented. The b&w illustrations are broadly rendered and cartoonlike. Highly recommended for all collections. M.O.B.