THE OPPOSITE OF INVISIBLE

When a contemporary Seattle teen decides it’s time to move in new directions, she ends up hurting her best friend and herself. Fifteen-year-old Alice has been best friends with Jewel since grade school. He’s comfortable. Her parents adore him. He reads her mind, knows her favorite latte and gives the best hugs. Artistic and “antipopular,” Jewel treks his own invisible path through their Seattle neighborhood and Alice has been content to trek right beside him. But now Alice wants a real boyfriend with “handholding and kissing . . . like everyone else.” When Simon Murphy, a very visible football team member, asks her to the Halloween Bloodbath, Alice can’t believe her luck. As Simon’s new chick, Alice is instantly part of the hot crowd, hanging out with popular kids and trying out new hairstyles and clothes. But inside Alice misses Jewel terribly and wonders if she and Jewel are more than just friends. Honest and slightly confused, Alice gradually learns the difference between being visible and being yourself and the importance of being true to a true friend. (Fiction. YA)