INVISIBLE INKLING by Emily Jenkins

A.R. Book Level: 3.6
A.R. Points: 3.0
Pages: 154

This book is a cute story, best for 3rd or 4th graders (or ambitious 2nd graders).  Hank is a fourth-grader who accidentally meets Inkling, an invisible bandapat that feasts on squash.  After Hank saves Inkling from a tiny dog, Inkling vows to help Hank deal with a bully at school.  The book has a lot of great humor, but only one thing bothers me: there is a part where Hank reacts to the bully by saying something incredibly cruel, and his guilt over his cruelty lasts for the rest of the book, but he never apologizes. It's like he solves his bully problem by becoming a bully himself.  I know my students have too strong a sense of right and wrong to accept that as a good ending.  But beside that one disappointment, this is an entertaining book.