What Not to Do if You Turn Invisible by Ross Welford (review)

Twelve-year-old Ethel is alarmed when her face starts sprouting pimples. Her peers tease, and her grandmother is no help, so she tries every remedy she can find on her own. She's panicked when combination of a Chinese herbal concoction and a dodgy tanning bed render her literally invisible, but the invisibility wears off before Gram returns home a few hours later. Meanwhile, though, a nerdy boy nicknamed Boydy has discovered her secret, as have two bullies who threaten blackmail. Ethel learns that she can control the process of turning invisible, and using her newfound ability, she and Boydy make a plan to derail the blackmailers, but in the process, Ethel discovers a secret about her parents that rocks her sense of who she is and why her grandmother is so set against standing out. This genre-blending British import plays just as adeptly in the real world of bullies, family secrets, and the perils of fame as it does in comic fantasy. Ethel's engaging voice is peppered with funny observations about Gram's rules and the things that run through Ethel's head as she learns to cope with, then enjoy, then fear her bouts of invisibility. The lively, fast-moving plot has a cinematic quality that will engage readers' visual imaginations; even though Ethel's decisions ultimately become cautionary tales, her situation will prompt readers to wonder what they would and wouldn't do if they could turn invisible at will. KC