The Genius Factor: How to capture an invisible cat by Paul Tobin

Delphine has only just noticed Nate Bannister. He's very quiet and a little odd, but only when she sees him being tested by some strange people does she realize he's not at all the average, boring kid she thought he was.

The next thing she knows, she's gotten caught up in his insane adventures, trying to corral an invisible (and giant) cat, escape from tea-drinking assassins, riding hippos, having discussions about emotions with a car and....what has she gotten herself into??

Eventually all ends well (more or less) and Delphine goes back to her ordinary, everyday life. But....once she's gotten a taste for adventure with Nate, she wants more...

This is very wacky. It's definitely in that genre of adventure story that could easily be mistaken for a bedtime story. "And then what happened?" "um....then hippos showed up! But he had a friendship ray! But then he dropped it in the water!" Nate is constantly producing gadgets, unlimited funds, and scientific gabble to solve any problem that arises, so the sense of peril is never really there. Older middle grade readers are probably not going to be interested in this unless they're really into silly stuff. But younger readers, who might be more willing to read silly adventures, are unlikely to pick up a book this long (260 pages). It falls into that tiny audience of young but strong readers.

Verdict: These types of silly adventures don't circulate very well at my library and the genre is already quite full so I'd pass on this one. I'd reconsider if it was a graphic novel or shorter (100 pages or less).

ISBN: 9781619638402; Published 2016 by Bloomsbury; Borrowed from another library in my consortium