Book Review: Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy

Title: Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy
Author: Jenny Nimmo
Publishers: Orchard Books (Scholastic)
Genre: Fantasy, Fiction
Pages: 408
Rating: 6/10


Charlie Bone’s life takes a turn for the worse. Why? That is because Charlie’s uncle leaves on a secret mission and disappears. Before Charlie’s uncle leaves, he leaves a note why he left. When Charlie goes to Bloor’s Academy, he discovers an invisible boy in the attics. The invisible boy is named Ollie Spark’s and only has a toe that is visible. After Charlie finds out that Ollie has a relative, Charlie has to get Ollie out of the attic and to Ollie’s relative. Will Ollie Sparks be reunited with his only relative? Will Charlie find out where his uncle went?

The Brown’s bathroom over looked Filbert Street, and while Benjamin was brushing his teeth he saw a tall man in a long black coat walk down the steps of number nine. Benjamin stopped brushing and stared. What on earth was going on in Charlie’s house?
The tall man was Paton Yewbeam, Charlie’s great uncle. He was wearing dark glasses and he carried a white stick. Benjamin assumed the dark glasses had something to do with Paton’s unfortunate talent for exploding lights. Paton never appeared in daylight, if he could help it, but this was an extraordinary time to go out, even for him. He walked up to a midnight blue car, opened the trunk, and carefully placed the wand (for that’s what it is) right at the back. Before Benjamin had even rinsed his toothbrush, Charlie’s uncle had driven off. He went in the opposite direction from his sisters, Benjamin noted. This wasn’t surprising, since Paton and his sisters were sworn enemies.

Paton Yewbeam is a man who is unique, he has a strange talent of exploding lights when he looks at a light bulb. He is often going places without telling any one. In the excerpt above Paton is probably going to some mysterious place that nobody knows about.

This book is in a series of eight. The author has written other books in the series: Midnight for Charlie Bone, Charlie Bone and the Time Twister, Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors, Charlie Bone and the Hidden King, Charlie Bone and the Beast, Charlie Bone and the Shadow, and Charlie Bone and the Red knight. Jenny Nimmo is thinking about a series called the Red King Trilogy.

I thought this book was superb compared to the books before. The rating I would give is 8/10, because I liked the characters and how they had different things about them that stood out from characters in other books - like Ollie Sparks, he is completely invisible except for his toe. I also liked the story, a boy named Charlie sees an invisible boy, and tries to make him escape! Who could think of that!? Jenny Nimmo did not add a lot of humor. In my opinion the humor pulls the story together, and this book could’ve used some more . I also thought that Jenny Nimmo should have added more details. On some parts I got very confused. But, all in all this book was good.

I would recommend this book to people who love to explore new places, because in this book Charlie and his friends go searching for a lot of things.