FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Jenny Nimmo's spellbinding series continues with Charlie Bone setting out to help an invisible boy as the ominous presence of a new girl at Bloor's threatens to stop him. In Nimmo's third installment, Charlie's nasty aunts bring home a mysterious girl named Belle, whose eyes constantly change color and who has a knack for calling the shots. Charlie is wary of her, but when he learns that Ollie, an invisible boy, needs help regaining his shape, the adventurous descendant of the Red King decides to put his fears aside to help. Through a series of surprising plot twists, Charlie realizes that the new girl is more powerful (and older!) than he ever imagined, while Ollie's invisible plight has been caused by a magical snake. It's up to Charlie -- with the help of Skarpo, Uncle Paton, and his school chums -- to put things right, and readers are sure to have a blast until the last page. Nimmo keeps the suspense high and the action coming throughout the book, developing the story line by introducing striking new characters and delivering juicy plot morsels to keep audiences on the edge of their seats. For a great episode and more insight into the Children's history, don't pass this one up. Matt Warner

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This semester at Bloor's Academy brings a few changes. There is a new art teacher, Mr. Boldova, and a new student, Belle, who lives with the Yewbeam aunts and seems to have a strange power over them.

Emma and Charlie soon discover Mr. Boldova's secret identity: He is the older brother of Ollie Sparks, the boy who lives in the attic of Bloor's Academy. Ollie had always been prying into matters that didn't concern him, so Ezekiel Bloor made him invisible. When Charlie and his friends find him, Ollie is alone and hungry. They promise to make Ollie visible again with the aid of his brother, Mr. Boldova.

Can Charlie and his friends save Ollie?

JENNY NIMMO is an award-winning author who lives with her painter husband in a converted mill in Wales. Ms. Nimmo's books include The Snow Spider, winner of the Smarties Prize, and Griffin's Castle, short-listed for the Smarties Prize, the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Award, and the W.H. Smith's Mind Boggling Award. The Owl Tree won the Smarties Gold Prize Award for six-to-eight-year-olds.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Readers return to Bloor's Academy in the paper-over-board Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy by Jenny Nimmo. This third installment in the series finds Charlie and friends helping a boy who was turned invisible by a magic snake, as punishment for snooping. An ancient, hypnotic shape-shifter arrives and attempts to thwart their efforts, a formidable foe for the magically endowed students. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature - Cindy L. Carolan

Although Harry Potteresque in everything from the cover to the characters (the names are fabulous; Skarpo, Mr. Ominous, Dr. Bloor, Zelda Dobinski, Tancred, Julia Ingledew, and Lucretia Yewbeam, just to name a few) to the setting, this book was definitely not penned by J. K. Rowling. It (and one would assume the two previous books in the series) is a gentler fantasy series. Charlie Bone is one of the endowed, descendants of the ten children of the Red King (who was a magician and left Africa with three leopards in the 1300's). He also took a rare boa that was his guardian, which, through the unfortunate actions of his eldest son, turned the boa into an evil creature with a hug that could kill. The king's daughter cast a spell that reduced the boa's deathly squeeze to a curse of invisibility. Now the boa lives in the attic of Bloor's Academy, awaiting his vindication. Join Charlie and his friends as they delve into what is really happening in the attic! The author lives in Wales in a very old converted watermill, and in addition to writing, has acted in repertory theatre, taught English and worked for the BBC in various and sundry capacities. This is third in the series of the "Children of the Red King" books. Recommended. 2004, Orchard Books/Scholastic Inc, Ages 9 to 12.

School Library Journal

Gr 4-7-In this third installment in the series, another semester at Bloor Academy is about to begin, and, as usual, chaos ensues. At home, Charlie's Uncle Paton disappears, then returns ill and powerless. Charlie's friend Benjamin heads off to Hong Kong, and his grandmother Maisie leaves to take care of her sick sister. At the same time, a new and sinister student named Belle arrives and quickly establishes herself as a force to be reckoned with. A new art teacher has joined the staff to find his younger brother, Ollie Sparks, turned invisible by a blue boa (snake, though there are feathers involved) controlled by the evil Ezekiel Bloor. Charlie and his friends try to come up with ways to help Ollie and Billy Raven, the poor orphan being manipulated and tormented by the Bloor clan. One of the strengths of this story (and the whole series) is the way both regular people and those who are magically endowed work toward common goals. A weakness is the lack of progress toward identifying and rescuing Charlie's father, who is barely mentioned in this outing. Still, it's a wild roller-coaster ride of a story, and will more than satisfy not only fans of this series, but those who are exhibiting symptoms of Harry Potter withdrawal.-Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.