The Invisible Boy

When Sam’s parents win an all expenses paid trip to the moon, seemingly kind neighbour Hilda Hardbottom steps in to take care of Sam while Mum and Dad are away. But it is not only Hilda’s bottom which is hard, so is her heart. When the Star Shuttle bearing Sam’s parents vanishes in space, Mrs Hardbottom gets ready to claim a large amount of insurance money when they are declared dead. Rescue for Sam comes in the unlikely form of Splodge, a small alien who has made his first independent trip to earth. Splodge radios home to his parents who trace the missing Star Shuttle and assist in its return to earth. There are lots of very funny incidents during the course of all of this, especially due to Splodge’s only partly successful attempts to make Sam invisible. Divided into short chapters and with text broken up by Gardner’s light-hearted pen and ink sketches, The Invisible Boy has enough humour and action to keep less confident readers as well as assured readers turning the pages.

Teachers and librarians may, however, need to think before lending this book to children who have been bereaved, as the nub of the plot centres around the supposed death of Sam’s parents.