In The Invisible Day, we’re introduced to fifth-grader Billie Stoner and – almost more importantly – to New York City, which is at once the book’s biggest asset and greatest drawback.

Billie lives with her mother and little sister in a loft in Greenwich Village. Her mom is also the school librarian and sticks to her like glue. How’s a kid to have some excitement in the most exciting city on the planet when your mother’s all over you? The answer comes on an outing in Central Park where Billie spies an abandoned make-up bag, which she slips into her backpack. When she applies a bit of intriguing cream from the bag, before you can say presto, Billie becomes invisible. By this point we’ve met Hubert, a dweeby and malleable best friend and victim-fodder for Alyssa, a class bully. Alyssa gets her hands on the backpack but rather than tear after her, Billie takes advantage of her new guise to wander around New York.

In this, her first book, Jocelyn gives a wonderful kid’s-eye account of Soho and Greenwich Village, conveying the wonder of the streets when an adult is not hovering. Billie eventually returns to school and enlists Hubert to help track down the owner of the make-up bag. A subway excursion and romp through the Upper West Side lead to the best-drawn character – the magician/inventor of the make-up, a nerdy teenage girl.

Jocelyn’s scenery is so vibrant that the characters are noticeably static by comparison and some plot detours feel like story being shoe-horned into setting. Still, this readable and handsomely produced book, complemented by Abby Carter’s lively line illustrations, is tailor-made for young readers who can’t get enough about New York City.