The bravest warrior in Nefaria by Adi Alsaid

Bobert Bougainvillea is invisible. He lives in the country of Nefaria and no matter how he tries to make friends at school, in between dodging the evil schemes that proliferate in his country, everyone seems to forget about him instantly and ignore him constantly. So when he meets two kids planning to try out the supposedly cursed gumball machine in the town square, two kids who, even though they think he's a new kid are willing to include him, he happily goes along with them. And is promptly cursed - and this time he's not just invisible, he's been completely forgotten by everyone, including his parents. Luckily, or unluckily, he's the final part of evil wizard Matt's scheme and instead of being trapped for endless years he, and all the other cursed kids, are transported to Matt's castle. There they become part of his scheme to take over the kingdom and Matt is helped, much to Bobert's shock, by the country's greatest warrior, Imogene Petunias. Matt has made her an offer she can't (or won't) refuse and it seems that there's no one to help Bobert and the other kids. But Bobert won't give up - finding his courage for the first time, he makes repeated efforts to escape, despite the apathy and eventual antagonism of many of the other prisoners, and to his surprise finds himself aided by his two new friends, Candelabra and Stanbert.

In the end, the Bobert discovers he has been lacking not visibility, but the courage to speak up and make the choice to connect with others and once he determines to shape his own destiny, he finds plenty of friends willing to help him. The kingdom is saved and Petunias redeems herself at the end, acknowledging Bobert as the truly brave warrior of the kingdom, as he is willing to risk everything to break the curse on the children.

 There are many examples of authors moving between audiences with more or less success. Adi Alsaid is a fairly popular young adult novelist and this is his first middle grade novel. However, like many authors stepping "down" in their audience, he falls into a familiar trope of writing a lengthy, and very silly, fantasy novel with a heavily didactic aspect. From the goofy names and ridiculous characters to the constant asides passing on "wisdom" to the reader, and finishing with the rather trite realization that Bobert was never invisible, he just needed to put himself out there to make friends, this hits pretty much every stereotype of "light fantasy" for young readers. This is not to say that no kids will enjoy this - plenty of kids enjoy silly stories and they will giggle and groan over the jokes about goat poop and Matt's lack of cleanliness, while happily enjoying the thought of friendship saving the day.

Verdict: Lengthy, silly fantasies do not do well in my library - if you have fans of this genre, this is a perfectly acceptable addition, but it does not stand out from the genre and is not an essential purchase.

ISBN: 9781665927758; Published May 2023 by Aladdin; Galley provided by publisher/Netgalley