With a mix of wild humor, fantasy, and sadness, this series starter offers a moving story about defeating bullies. When his best friend moves away, Hank dreads fourth grade alone in his Brooklyn school, and he is thrilled to discover a small, invisible creature, Inkling, who helps him face the lunchroom jungle. Inkling isn't imaginary. Hank can feel its fur and, even better, the two can talk, and together they stand up to the school bully. Told in Hank's present-tense voice, the story will grab readers with its comedyand captivating sidekick. A subplot about scientists who want to investigate Inkling's invisibility adds tension, but what will pull readers most is the everyday realism. Adults are no help in dealing with the bully, who backs off. Was it because Inkling bites him or because Hank delivers a devastating insult? Starting with the cover image of a creature snuggling in Hank's backpack, the spot art extends the story's immediacy and humor. Readers will recognize Hank's conflicting feelings about the desire to win and what it can make you do.

Fourth-grader Hank Wolowitz has a very special imaginary friend: an invisible, squash-loving, almost-extinct bandapat named Inkling, whose attempts to help Hank with a bully go spectacularly wrong. Children will find this cranky bandapat tale (enhanced with Harry Bliss's droll illustrations) hilarious and heartwarming. It's a perfect choice for an early school year read-aloud: straightforward, zippy plot, likable characters, and believable family.

Nine-year-old Hank Wolowitz fears the prospect of fourth grade at New York's PS 166 without friends—his best friend Alexander just moved away (against his will). Sasha Chin from downstairs doesn't really count as a friend, because she has three good girl friends she hangs out with half the time. When Hank reaches for a Lego piece under the sink of his family's ice-cream shop, Big Round Pumpkin, and feels fur where it shouldn't be and days later sees a waffle cone disappear bite by bite, he knows something is fishy. After Rootbeer, the neighbor's dog, goes bananas barking at nothing in the hallway, Hank discovers he has accidentally saved an invisible, furry Bandapat named Inkling. Inkling, who loves squash and can be a stranger to the truth, feels he owes Hank a debt and must stick around until he can save Hank's life. An opportunity for that just might arise, since bully Bruno Gillicut has decided that Hank annoys him and must pay by forking over his dessert at lunch every day. Jenkins' possible series starter (given the hints at the close) is a gently humorous and nicely realistic (with the obvious exception of the invisible Peruvian Bandapat) tale about coping with the loss of a lifelong best friend. (The book will feature Bliss' signature black-and-white illustrations, but no art was available at the time of review.) Anyone who who has ever had an imaginary friend will appreciate sassy Inkling (who's invisible—not imaginary). (Fantasy. 7-10)

Gr 2-4 Hank is about to start school without his best friend, who has moved from Brooklyn to Iowa. While reaching for a lost Lego piece under a sink in his parents' ice-cream store, the fourth grader discovers something furry, warm, and invisible. The creature introduces himself as Inkling, an invisible bandapat native to the Peruvian Woods of Mystery. The only one of his kind left, he has come in search of squash, the food he needs to survive, having noticed a newspaper ad for Hank's family's shop, the Big Round Pumpkin. Inkling often tells lies, so Hank is not sure what to believe. Feeling uneasy about facing school without his buddy, he invites Inkling along, and the bandapat helps him to deal with a bully who steals the best parts of his lunch. Bliss's humorous cartoon illustrations help move the story along. Young chapter-book readers will relate to Hank's predicament, enjoy his wild imagination, and wonder whether Inkling is real until the very end. Kris Hickey, Columbus Metropolitan Library, OH