The Invisible Polly McDoodle

Lorraine Douglas is the youth services co-ordinator at the Winnipeg
Public Library.

Set just before Christmas in Edmonton, this contemporary novel features
12-year-old Polly McDoodle, who feels confused about her future and is
ignored by her parents. She wants to be an artist just like her friend
Isabel, who gives her a gem from her Memory Box. But Isabel’s precious
Memory Box is stolen in one of a series of thefts in Polly’s apartment
block. Polly and her friend Kyle are determined to solve this mystery.
They become suspicious of Arturo, a new Canadian, because of Polly’s
observations in her sketches of the people and sights of her
neighborhood. Arturo confesses his part in the robberies and implicates
Thorn, who has coerced him with threats. Polly finally receives
attention from her parents when she forcefully asserts her feelings
about their treatment of her.

Readers of Linda Bailey’s Stevie Diamond series will enjoy the
sleuthing aspects of this easy-to-read story as well as the development
of Polly and Kyle’s friendship. The book’s principal weakness is its
too-quick resolution, at the end, of all of Polly’s problems with her
parents. Recommended with reservations.