THE LAST INVISIBLE BOY

Grief-stricken after the sudden death of his father, Finn starts turning invisible in this magical-realism tale of recovery. Finn’s story starts in media res, his father dead and his invisibility far progressed, with his skin the color of paper and his formerly brown hair whitening. When he returns to school sometime after the death, the bullying jeers about his freakish new coloring are his only distraction from the awkward attempts at sympathy from teachers and friends. Through a series of brief vignettes illustrated by Finn’s own cartoons, he recalls his picture-perfect relationship with his father, from games of midnight baseball to father-son motorcycle rides. It takes time for Finn to recognize the grief of others—his mother, his grandfather—and to start on the path to recovery along with his mother and kid brother. Finn’s poignant story is a quietly believable tale of one family’s journey through grief. Coovert’s cartoons add a nice touch of bittersweet humor. (Fiction. 10-12)