Allen & Unwin Australia

ISBN: 9781848125094

Publisher: Bonnier

Imprint: Piccadilly Books

Pub Date: March 2016

RRP $14.99

Just imagine if you could be invisible whenever you like – most children would love this!

This new story which is perfect for beginning independent readers comes from a mystery author so to speak. The publisher’s notes tell us that Louise Gray is a new pseudonym for an author of over ninety books and sales of over $3 million dollars.

Izzy is a very sweet little girl who is rather curious and quite lively. She lives with two busy working parents and a rather bossy older sister. It is her Nana Lin who is her real kindred spirit. Nana is a retired science teacher who has quite a menagerie (which is perfect for Izzy who is not allowed pets) and still messes about with her various experiments. Her latest is a concoction called Vanishoo which she hopes will make things become invisible but it’s just not working out. That is, until Izzy accidentally knocks an extra ingredient into the swirling liquid bubbling on the stove – and promptly vanishes!

Luckily, it’s not actually a permanent condition. It seems that a feather from Nana’s parrot  Perky makes Izzy visible again as long as she keeps hold of it.

Not surprisingly Izzy’s parents are none too thrilled with this development and harass Nana to come up with an antidote.  While they await this impatiently, Izzy does make good use of her new ability by giving some nasty teenagers a good wake up call, helping a neighbour and making peace with her big sister.

All in all this is a fun read with some solid family messages about trust and doing the right thing.

Recommended for young readers of about 7 years upwards.