A budding investigative journalist begins her summer as a suspicious neighborhood sleuth until she finds new friends-and a dangerous secret.Nadia's a comic-book lover and reporter-in-training. Like her hero, Lois Lane, she sees supervillains and superheroes everywhere in her mostly white neighborhood. Paddle Boy is the neighborhood villain who once broke her canoe paddle. Invisible Boy is the local man of mystery: a boy her own age who appears out of nowhere to save a dog or leave lemonade for a nice old lady before vanishing again. What a fabulous scoop for Nadia, girl reporter! When the three kids become friends-for Paddle Boy is not the dastardly villain of Nadia's imagination-she wonders why Invisible Boy is always gardening, doesn't attend school, and is always nervously hiding. A conversation with her aunt, a human rights lawyer, leaves Nadia shaken. Eventually the superhero games turn grimly real, but plenty of coincidences keep the adventure optimistic. Each chapter is punctuated with a page from the comic-book adventures of Nadia Quick, Girl Reporter, featuring both villains and heroes-and, sometimes, realities too dark for a witty superhero quip. Informational content about how to recognize and report suspected human trafficking is embedded in an epilogue in the form of a news article written by the most intrepid of middle school reporters.A grim reality approachably and even engagingly presented. (author's note) (Fiction. 10-12)

Aspiring investigative reporter Nadia Quick, 12, is on the hunt for a scoop. The only child-s love of Superman, especially -ace reporter- Lois Lane, inspires her to cast neighborhood kids in comics roles-one, whom she witnesses smashing her canoe paddle, as supervillain Paddle Boy, and another, who rescues her dog and then vanishes, as superhero The Invisible Boy. Though Hollingsworth-s spirited heroine imagines herself an observant detective, she can be unaware (for example, not recognizing that her blogger mom is pregnant until she-s informed via a devastating livestream reveal). Still, her instincts to look closer into The Invisible Boy-s circumstances inspire her to track him down and, as she gets to know him, realize that something about his situation feels off. Topical subplots involving children-s right to privacy in parenting blogs and health care for veterans are thoughtfully incorporated, while Nadia-s frequently humorous denseness imparts levity, echoed in Lee-s single-page comics-style panels. A layered exploration of a challenging subject, including an epilogue detailing warning signs of child trafficking and an author-s note. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 10-14. Author-s agent: Amber Caravéo, Skylark Literary. (Sept.)