Invisible Emmie

by Terri Libenson, Terri Libenson (Illustrator)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Two girls on opposite ends of the middle school social spectrum find their lives intersecting. Hilarious and heartfelt, this is the story of middle school in all of its complexities, rich with real-world emotion that young readers will immediately connect with.

Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Jennifer L. Holm, Invisible Emmie is a humorous and surprising debut graphic novel by Terri Libenson, creator of the internationally syndicated, Reuben Award-winning comic strip The Pajama Diaries.

This is the story of two totally different girls—
quiet, shy, artistic Emmie
popular, outgoing, athletic Katie
—and how their lives unexpectedly intersect one day, when an embarrassing note falls into the wrong hands. . . .

All the crushes, humiliations, boredom, and drama of middle school are compressed into one surprising day in this extraordinary novel.

Plus don't miss Terri Libenson's Positively Izzy, Just Jaime, and Becoming Brianna!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062484932
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/02/2017
Series:	Emmie & Friends Series , #1
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	63,073
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.51(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Terri Libenson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Emmie & Friends series and the cartoonist of the (now retired) award-winning comic strip The Pajama Diaries. Terri empty-nests in Cleveland, Ohio, with her husband, Mike. She is the proud mom of two grown daughters and a poodle. You can find her online at terrilibenson.com.

Terri Libenson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Emmie & Friends series and the cartoonist of the (now retired) award-winning comic strip The Pajama Diaries. Terri empty-nests in Cleveland, Ohio, with her husband, Mike. She is the proud mom of two grown daughters and a poodle. You can find her online at terrilibenson.com.

Editorial Reviews

03/06/2017
In her first children’s book, cartoonist Libenson (The Pajama Diaries) offers strikingly different visions of seventh grade through two very dissimilar narrators. School is stressful for shy, quiet Emmie; Katie, meanwhile, is breezily popular, confident, and beautiful. With frizzy hair and hunched shoulders, Emmie shows up in tiny vignettes, sandwiched between blocks of text, that make her look as small and insignificant as she feels. Katie’s chapters, by contrast, are big, splashy panels that reflect her outgoing personality (“I’m just your average teenage girl,” she says after being offered movie roles and the crown of homecoming queen). Emmie and Katie share a crush on classmate Tyler, and when a sappy love note Emmie writes to Tyler as a joke is made public, Emmie is humiliated. Katie rises to her defense, but Emmie eventually learns to speak up for herself, realizing that embarrassment isn’t the end of the world and being social isn’t as impossible as she thought. A well-executed twist will have readers flipping back to see what they missed while cheering the strides made by Libenson’s no-longer-invisible heroine. Ages 8–12. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House. (May)

Publishers Weekly

This is middle grade fiction at its best. A fantastic debut novel with plenty of laughs and tons of heart. Invisible Emmie is unforgettable!” — Lincoln Peirce, author of Big Nate

“This funny and heartfelt tale will ring true for anyone who’s ever felt invisible.” — Victoria Jamieson, Newbery Honor author-illustrator of Roller Girl

“Clever, funny work by a great cartoonist. Reading Invisible Emmie sums up middle school: You laugh, you cry, you get beaned in the head with a volleyball.” — Stephan Pastis, author of Timmy Failure

“In her first children’s book, cartoonist Libenson offers strikingly different visions of seventh grade through two very dissimilar narrators. A well-executed twist will have readers flipping back to see what they missed while cheering the strides made by Libenson’s no-longer-invisible heroine.” — Publishers Weekly

“With all-too-familiar middle-school drama and an empowering lesson about speaking up and bravely facing down embarrassment, this should find an easy audience among fans of Wimpy Kid or Dork Diaries books.” — Booklist

“Many readers will recognize themselves in Emmie and her friends, who are at once self-conscious and eager to be seen for who they are. A highly relatable middle grade drama.” — School Library Journal

“Libenson’s clever tale will entertain readers in the throes of middle school as well as younger students both wary of and intrigued by their near future.” — The Horn Book

From the Publisher

With all-too-familiar middle-school drama and an empowering lesson about speaking up and bravely facing down embarrassment, this should find an easy audience among fans of Wimpy Kid or Dork Diaries books.

Booklist

Libenson’s clever tale will entertain readers in the throes of middle school as well as younger students both wary of and intrigued by their near future.

The Horn Book

With all-too-familiar middle-school drama and an empowering lesson about speaking up and bravely facing down embarrassment, this should find an easy audience among fans of Wimpy Kid or Dork Diaries books.

Booklist

This is middle grade fiction at its best. A fantastic debut novel with plenty of laughs and tons of heart. Invisible Emmie is unforgettable!

Lincoln Peirce

Clever, funny work by a great cartoonist. Reading Invisible Emmie sums up middle school: You laugh, you cry, you get beaned in the head with a volleyball.

Stephan Pastis

This funny and heartfelt tale will ring true for anyone who’s ever felt invisible.

Victoria Jamieson

2017-02-14
One bad day in seventh grade can feel like a lifetime. However, even end-of-the-world-level heartache can have surprising and comic consequences. Emmie's story is part of the growing subgenre that hybridizes the middle-grade and graphic novel. With doodle-illustrated prose chapters depicting Emmie's world and entire comics-style sections depicting the popular Kate, Libenson takes readers inside the halls of middle school with the same nod to weirdness and eye-rolling angst as such format standards as Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries. Emmie is a painfully shy girl who is forced to see and be seen one fateful day when a playful game with best friend Brianna turns into a nightmare. Libenson uses two different illustration styles to distinguish between Emmie, the soft-spoken wallflower, and Kate, the outgoing girl of fabulousness. An artist using her doodles to illustrate the seventh-grade world, Emmie sees herself as someone with no voice, while the enigmatic, charismatic Kate is full of confidence and determined to push Emmie out of her comfort zone. Though readers may be puzzled by the device initially, Libenson's rationale for the dual portrayals becomes clear in the end. However, the repetition of Emmie's description as quiet, shy, and disenfranchised becomes as grating as a nasal whine. Both Emmie and Kate appear to be white, but school scenes reveal multiethnic classmates. Classic middle school themes come alive, but they fail to really go anywhere. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews