Slightly Invisible by Lauren Child

Lauren Child is my favourite picture book author (you may have noticed) and I've wanted to read Charlie and Lola's most recent adventure for a while, so when I spotted it in the library I snapped it up.

Slightly Invisible sees Lola spoiling Charlie and Marv's games and insisting they play with her and her imaginary friend, Soren Lorensen. The boys aren't convinced until Soren helps them catch the "most strange and terrifyingly tricky creature in the universe".

Lola is her usual annoying self and I imagine how annoying you find Lola impacts directly on your enjoyment of the Charlie & Lola books, but I think she's hilarious and an extremely convincing portrayal of a 4-year-old (I have known many Lolas over the years...). I think you need to 'perform' Lola to really get the most out of the Charlie & Lola books. Fortunately, I don't seem to struggle to capture her bossy, self-absorbed, slightly facetious personality... huh. This is one of my favourite bits:

And Lola says, "You can only see me because you know what I look like. You can't see Soren Lorensen at all." 


"That's because there is NO such person as Soren Lorensen," I say. 


"Well, if there is no such person, then who ate all the biscuits?" says Lola. 


Marv says, "WHAT? Your friend Soren Lorensen ate all the biscuits?" 


Lola says, "Oh yes, I am afraid Soren Lorensen is quite greedy." 

Soren Lorensen is actually one of my favourite characters and he features heavily in this book. Actually 'heavily' probably isn't the right word, since part of my love for Soren stems from how brilliantly Child draws him: transparent and glossy, so you can only see him when the light catches the book in the right way.

Slightly Invisible joins I Am Too Absolutely Small for School, I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato and I Am Not Sleepy and I Will Not Go To Bed on our favourite books shelf... No, not the library book - my boys loved it so much that they've insisted on a copy to keep. Praise doesn't come much higher than that!