The Invisible Boy
Alyssa Hollingsworth
Children’s (but this adult loved it)
If no one sees him, does he exist? This superhero-inspired adventure story explores friendship and what it means to be truly brave.
Inspired by her all-time hero, Lois Lane, Nadia Quick is keen to scoop her own breakthrough news story. When a mysterious boy saves her drowning dog, and then disappears into thin air, she’s sure she’s onto a sensational story. Nadia hunts down “The Invisible Boy” despite interruptions from her arch-nemesis, the super-villain, “Paddle Boy” (who recently smashed her family’s canoe panel without explanation). Nadia soon learns that when it comes to investigative journalism, things aren’t always exactly as they first appear.
The Invisible Boy is a part-adventure, part-mystery story that delves into the complex and serious topic of child labour and human trafficking. Though she lives only 14 miles from the capital of “the land of the free”, Nadia’s eyes are slowly opened to the reality of forced labour right in her own neighbourhood. There are other subtle allusions to issues at the heart of Western society such as homelessness among the ex-military, and the intrusion and pressure of social media on children and family life. Despite the heaviness of the main topic, The Invisible Boy is a pacy and often light-hearted read. Nadia is a determined and inspiring lead that in my opinion has more going for her than any iteration of Lois Lane I’ve seen. All the characters are well-developed and their inputs into the story are engaging. As the story reached the climax, I couldn’t put the book down. Each chapter opening has a one-page comic strip drawn by Deborah Lee that links in different ways to the events of the chapter, or Nadia’s inner attitudes and hopes. These interludes are great at keeping the story from becoming too dark for kids, which could have been the case given the seriousness of the subject matter. Hollingsworth succeeds in finding the right balance between her subject matter and the young age of her readers.
