Changes: My Best Friend Is Invisible

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Book

My Best Friend Is Invisible is the fifty-seventh book in the original Goosebumps book series. It was first published in 1997.

The illustration shows an invisible Brent Green having pizza and a soda as Brutus, Sammy's cat, is standing up and screaming in a comical way. Tim Jacobus's signature, which is very difficult to see from afar, is on the bottom part of the pizza box that is facing Brutus.

Blurb

HE'S OUTTA SIGHT...FOR REAL!

Sammy Jacobs is into ghosts and science fiction. Not exactly the smartest hobby--at least not if you ask Sammy's parents. They're research scientists and they only believe in real science. But now Sammy's met someone who's totally unreal. He's hanging out in Sammy's room. And eating his cereal at breakfast. Sammy's got to find a way to get rid of his new "friend." Only problem is...Sammy's new "friend" is invisible!

Plot

Sammy Jacobs is daydreaming while sitting at the dinner table with his parents and his brother, Simon. Unlike the rest of Sammy's family, he isn't very interested in science. Sammy is more interested in science fiction, much to the disappointment of his parents, who are scientists.

After an argument with his brother, Sammy excuses himself from the dinner table and goes upstairs, saying that Roxanne Johnson, his best friend, is coming over to finish a school project. As Sammy enters his room, he notices his homework is scattered across his bedroom floor. He glances up and finds his window open, even though he is certain that he left it closed. Suddenly, Roxanne steps into his room. After Sammy shuts the window, the two kids start talking about their English project. Roxanne suggests the project be about Hedge House, an abandoned and supposedly haunted house in Middletown. Sammy tries to argue that the house isn't really haunted, but Roxanne doesn't listen to him. A few seconds later, Mr. Jacobs scares the kids by entering the room while carrying a special flashlight. The device is called a Molecule Detector Light. Mr. Jacobs invented the device himself, and it can be used to see invisible things. Sammy's father exits the room, Roxanne goes home, and Sammy goes to sleep. Sammy wakes up in the middle of the night and finds his window open once more.

The next morning at school, Sammy is called on in math class to solve an equation. He walks up to the chalkboard, but he doesn't know how to solve the problem. Unexpectedly, he feels an invisible force grab his hand. The force guides Sammy's arm, solving the problem for him. Sammy leaves the classroom, screaming. After school, Sammy is at home, and he hears noises coming from the kitchen. He goes to the kitchen to see what's going on, and finds a slice of pizza floating in the air. Sammy's mother enters the kitchen, and thinks that Sammy was the one eating pizza, and she scolds him for trying to eat before dinner. Sammy is told to clean his room. When Sammy goes upstairs, he notices that his room has been completely trashed. There are cereal boxes, empty food containers, and crushed juice boxes all over the bedroom.

Suddenly, he hears a voice emanating from inside the bedroom. The owner of the voice introduces himself as Brent Green, an invisible boy. Brent says that he wants to be Sammy's best friend. After Sammy asks Brent a few questions, Roxanne enters his room. Sammy tries to show Roxanne the invisible boy, but Brent remains quiet. Roxanne assumes Sammy is joking. The following day, she tells everyone about Sammy's "invisible friend". This causes the entire school to start making jokes about Sammy, even the teachers. Later that same day, Sammy and Roxanne are getting ready for a school relay race. When the race starts, Sammy begins running, but he hears Brent's voice. Brent is running alongside Sammy, and he says that he wants to help Sammy win the race. Brent then grabs Sammy and starts lifting him, but the invisible boy accidentally drops Sammy. Sammy falls and loses the race, which upsets Roxanne. Sammy tries to get rid of Brent, but he wouldn't leave Sammy alone.

On Saturday, Sammy and Roxanne head to Hedge House, hoping to gather evidence for their English report. They explore the insides of the house for a while, but they start hearing ghostly noises. They go upstairs, where they see chairs and other pieces of furniture floating and being thrown to the floor by an invisible force, which the kids assume to be a ghost. The ghost grabs Roxanne and throws her against the wall. The kids run away from Hedge House.

Once Sammy is home, Brent reveals that he was the ghostly being in Hedge House. Sammy starts yelling at Brent. Mr. Jacobs enters the room and sees his son seemingly yelling at nobody, so he contemplates taking Sammy to a doctor. Sammy rejects this suggestion, and he comes up with an idea to make his parents believe him.

Sammy grabs his father's Molecule Detector Light and points it to Brent, revealing the boy's real body, which Sammy describes as monstrous. Unlike Sammy and his family, Brent only has one head and two arms. He doesn't even have antenna. Brent identifies himself as human, and explains that his parents turned him invisible to protect him. Simon asks if they can keep Brent as a pet, but Mr. Jacobs says that they should send Brent to a zoo, as humans are an endangered species.

Reprints and rereleases

Book	Release date	Type	Media
2003 - 2007 reprint series	June 2007	Standalone	Paperback

International releases

No.	Book	Country/Language	Translated title	Release date	Publisher
57	My Best Friend Is Invisible	United Kingdom English	My Best Friend Is Invisible	June 19, 1998	Scholastic
57	Mi mejor amigo es invisible	Spain Spanish	My Best Friend Is Invisible	April 2, 1999	Ediciones B
32	Mein unsichtbarer Freund	Germany German	My Invisible Friend	May 1, 1999	Omnibus Verlag
57	Un amico invisibile	Italy Italian	An Invisible Friend	June 1999	Mondadori
13	투명인간의 저주	South Korea Korean	Curse of the Invisible Man	July 17, 2015	Gorilla Box
37	我的朋友是隱形人	China Chinese	My Friend is a Stealth Man	October 6, 2016	Shang Zhou Publishing
6	Besti Vinur Minn er ósýnilegur	Iceland Italian	My Best Friend is Invisible	November 1st, 2018	Bokabeitan

Television adaptation

My Best Friend Is Invisible was adapted into an episode of the Goosebumps TV series. It is the second episode of season three, and the forty-sixth episode overall.

Artwork

Tear-Outs

The original printings of the book included bookmark and trading card tear-outs.

Trivia

There's a small error on the cover of this book; if you look closely at Brutus' left leg, you'll see that it is slightly transparent.
The end twist is slightly similar to Welcome to Camp Nightmare in that everyone (except Brent) is revealed to not be human at the end.
Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs' names are not mentioned in this book, but the episode refers to them as Norman and Beverly.
This book references Frosted Flakes, Corn Pops, and the New York Yankees.
The twist ending might be a reference to " Eye of the Beholder", an episode from the 1959 TV series called The Twilight Zone.

References in other Goosebumps media

Brent Green appears as a minor antagonist in the Goosebumps film. He is refereed to as "The Invisible Boy".

Goosebumps series

#01 Welcome to Dead House	#22 Ghost Beach	#43 The Beast from the East
#02 Stay Out of the Basement	#23 Return of the Mummy	#44 Say Cheese and Die — Again!
#03 Monster Blood	#24 Phantom of the Auditorium	#45 Ghost Camp
#04 Say Cheese and Die!	#25 Attack of the Mutant	#46 How to Kill a Monster
#05 The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb	#26 My Hairiest Adventure	#47 Legend of the Lost Legend
#06 Let's Get Invisible!	#27 A Night in Terror Tower	#48 Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns
#07 Night of the Living Dummy	#28 The Cuckoo Clock of Doom	#49 Vampire Breath
#08 The Girl Who Cried Monster	#29 Monster Blood III	#50 Calling All Creeps!
#09 Welcome to Camp Nightmare	#30 It Came from Beneath the Sink!	#51 Beware, the Snowman
#10 The Ghost Next Door	#31 Night of the Living Dummy II	#52 How I Learned to Fly
#11 The Haunted Mask	#32 The Barking Ghost	#53 Chicken Chicken
#12 Be Careful What You Wish For...	#33 The Horror at Camp Jellyjam	#54 Don't Go to Sleep!
#13 Piano Lessons Can Be Murder	#34 Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes	#55 The Blob That Ate Everyone
#14 The Werewolf of Fever Swamp	#35 A Shocker on Shock Street	#56 The Curse of Camp Cold Lake
#15 You Can't Scare Me!	#36 The Haunted Mask II	#57 My Best Friend Is Invisible
#16 One Day at HorrorLand	#37 The Headless Ghost	#58 Deep Trouble II
#17 Why I'm Afraid of Bees	#38 The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena	#59 The Haunted School
#18 Monster Blood II	#39 How I Got My Shrunken Head	#60 Werewolf Skin
#19 Deep Trouble	#40 Night of the Living Dummy III	#61 I Live in Your Basement!
#20 The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight	#41 Bad Hare Day	#62 Monster Blood IV
#21 Go Eat Worms!	#42 Egg Monsters from Mars

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Tabber/Book|previous=The Curse of Camp Cold Lake|next=Deep Trouble II}}
 {{Infobox book
 |image = <tabber>
@@ Line 18: / Line 19: @@
 |next = ''[[Deep Trouble II]]''}}'''''My Best Friend Is Invisible''''' is the fifty-seventh book in the original [[Goosebumps (original series)|''Goosebumps'']] book series. It was first published in [[1997]].
-The illustration shows an invisible [[Brent Green]] having pizza and a soda as Brutus, Sammy's cat, is surprised at what it sees.
+The illustration shows an invisible [[Brent Green]] having pizza and a soda as Brutus, [[Sammy Jacobs|Sammy]]'s cat, is standing up and screaming in a comical way. Tim Jacobus's signature, which is very difficult to see from afar, is on the bottom part of the pizza box that is facing Brutus.
 ==Blurb==
+<span style="font-family: Futura Condensed, Medium Condensed, Oswald; color: #E37913; font-size:18pt;">''HE'S OUTTA SIGHT...FOR REAL!''</span>
-<big>''He's Outta Sight...For Real!''</big>
 Sammy Jacobs is into ghosts and science fiction. Not exactly the smartest hobby--at least not if you ask Sammy's parents. They're research scientists and they only believe in real science. But now Sammy's met someone who's totally unreal. He's hanging out in Sammy's room. And eating his cereal at breakfast. Sammy's got to find a way to get rid of his new "friend." Only problem is...Sammy's new "friend" is invisible!
 ==Plot==
+[[Sammy Jacobs]] is daydreaming while sitting at the dinner table with his parents and his brother, Simon. Unlike the rest of Sammy's family, he isn't very interested in science. Sammy is more interested in science fiction, much to the disappointment of his parents, who are scientists.
-Sammy Jacobs has two scientist parents and a scientist-in-training younger brother, Simon. Sammy is the black sheep of the family, because he does not care about science, he cares about science fiction. He busies himself reading books about ghosts and aliens while his brother is fast at work measuring the growth of his body every day. Sammy’s friend Roxanne comes over to berate Sammy for being such a poor athlete. Sammy lost a track meet earlier in the day and Roxanne wants to make sure he does a better job at the mini-Olympics later in the week. Sammy says he merely let her win and assures Roxanne that he will run faster.
+After an argument with his brother, Sammy excuses himself from the dinner table and goes upstairs, saying that [[Roxanne Johnson]], his best friend, is coming over to finish a school project. As Sammy enters his room, he notices his homework is scattered across his bedroom floor. He glances up and finds his window open, even though he is certain that he left it closed. Suddenly, Roxanne steps into his room. After Sammy shuts the window, the two kids start talking about their English project. Roxanne suggests the project be about Hedge House, an abandoned and supposedly haunted house in [[Middletown]]. Sammy tries to argue that the house isn't really haunted, but Roxanne doesn't listen to him. A few seconds later, Mr. Jacobs scares the kids by entering the room while carrying a special flashlight. The device is called a Molecule Detector Light. Mr. Jacobs invented the device himself, and it can be used to see invisible things. Sammy's father exits the room, Roxanne goes home, and Sammy goes to sleep. Sammy wakes up in the middle of the night and finds his window open once more.
-Roxanne and Sammy then get to work brainstorming about their English term project. Sammy suggests studying the life cycle of a moth or charting the growth of plants. Roxanne wants to film a haunted house over the weekend.
+The next morning at school, Sammy is called on in math class to solve an equation. He walks up to the chalkboard, but he doesn't know how to solve the problem. Unexpectedly, he feels an invisible force grab his hand. The force guides Sammy's arm, solving the problem for him. Sammy leaves the classroom, screaming. After school, Sammy is at home, and he hears noises coming from the kitchen. He goes to the kitchen to see what's going on, and finds a slice of pizza floating in the air. Sammy's mother enters the kitchen, and thinks that Sammy was the one eating pizza, and she scolds him for trying to eat before dinner. Sammy is told to clean his room. When Sammy goes upstairs, he notices that his room has been completely trashed. There are cereal boxes, empty food containers, and crushed juice boxes all over the bedroom.
-Their wild speculation is interrupted by a mysterious light that appears in Sammy's bedroom. The source of this light is revealed to be a special magic flashlight belonging to Sammy's father that allows invisible organisms to be made visible. This light scared Sammy and Roxanne. Roxanne resumes trying to sell Sammy on the haunted house idea. The haunted house is called the Hedge House, because there are hedges in front of the house. Instead of visiting a haunted house, Sammy would much rather spend his Saturday watching the new horror movie, School Spirit. His father overhears and confuses this with his son actually having school spirit.
+Suddenly, he hears a voice emanating from inside the bedroom. The owner of the voice introduces himself as [[Brent Green]], an invisible boy. Brent says that he wants to be Sammy's best friend. After Sammy asks Brent a few questions, Roxanne enters his room. Sammy tries to show Roxanne the invisible boy, but Brent remains quiet. Roxanne assumes Sammy is joking. The following day, she tells everyone about Sammy's "invisible friend". This causes the entire school to start making jokes about Sammy, even the teachers. Later that same day, Sammy and Roxanne are getting ready for a school relay race. When the race starts, Sammy begins running, but he hears Brent's voice. Brent is running alongside Sammy, and he says that he wants to help Sammy win the race. Brent then grabs Sammy and starts lifting him, but the invisible boy accidentally drops Sammy. Sammy falls and loses the race, which upsets Roxanne. Sammy tries to get rid of Brent, but he wouldn't leave Sammy alone.
-After Roxanne leaves, Sammy becomes convinced that someone is messing with him, as his window is open and his homework thrown on the floor of his bedroom. He is sure that a ghost is responsible. The next morning he discovers that Brutus, his cat, opted not to sleep in his bedroom which was unusual. He sits down for a nice bowl of cereal, only to discover that while his head was turned away from the bowl, the ghost has eaten all of his cereal.
+On Saturday, Sammy and Roxanne head to Hedge House, hoping to gather evidence for their English report. They explore the insides of the house for a while, but they start hearing ghostly noises. They go upstairs, where they see chairs and other pieces of furniture floating and being thrown to the floor by an invisible force, which the kids assume to be a ghost. The ghost grabs Roxanne and throws her against the wall. The kids run away from Hedge House.
-At school, Sammy is called to the front of the class to solve a math problem. The polynomial equation takes a turn though, as an invisible clammy hand grasps Sammy's and he runs from the classroom in hysterics.
+Once Sammy is home, Brent reveals that he was the ghostly being in Hedge House. Sammy starts yelling at Brent. Mr. Jacobs enters the room and sees his son seemingly yelling at nobody, so he contemplates taking Sammy to a doctor. Sammy rejects this suggestion, and he comes up with an idea to make his parents believe him.
-Back at home, Sammy witnesses the scene depicted on the cover of the book. Sammy's mother scolds him for eating the pizza. She then tells him to clean up his bedroom. When he heads upstairs to do as instructed, he discovers that someone has strewn cereal, lunch meat and other foodstuffs all over his floor. He comes to the conclusion that only a ghost could have caused this food fight. Then the ghost speaks up and confirms this.
+Sammy grabs his father's Molecule Detector Light and points it to Brent, revealing the boy's real body, which Sammy describes as monstrous. Unlike Sammy and his family, Brent only has one head and two arms. He doesn't even have antenna. Brent identifies himself as human, and explains that his parents turned him invisible to protect him. Simon asks if they can keep Brent as a pet, but Mr. Jacobs says that they should send Brent to a zoo, as humans are an endangered species.
-Except the voice is not a ghost at all, but an invisible boy named [[Brent Green]]. He is twelve too and wants very badly to be Sammy's friend. He explains that he does not know how he got to Sammy's house or who his parents are, but he is hungry and wants to be Sammy's friend. Sammy tries to get his family to come see his invisible friend, but they do not believe him. Roxanne does not even believe him, though she does tell the entire student body about it so they can mock him properly at school the next day.
-Things get so bad for Sammy that he has to eat lunch alone in the library. Brent followed him to school and starts eating his sandwich. Sammy pleads with him to go away, but Brent insists that he is just trying to be his friend. Brent proves his friendship by ruining Sammy's turn in the relay race, costing his team the game.
-To make up losing the race to Roxanne, Sammy is forced to agree to accompany her to the haunted house that weekend. Beforehand though, Sammy tries to convince Brent to leave. He tries to get him to live with Roxanne, because she has better food. But, Brent does not want to be friends with a girl.
-Brent sees that Sammy's trying to get rid of him and attempts to throw him out the window. He stops himself, before he actually murders Sammy though and explains that he was just goofing around in a familial way. Brent finally leaves after Sammy turns up the radiator high enough to produce steam in his bedroom.
-Roxanne and Sammy are at the Hedge House and a ghost does show up. Upstairs in the spooky house, the ghost angrily picks up Roxanne and starts throwing her around the room. Then the ghost picks up a pillow and tries to smother her. Roxanne and Sammy flee from the house. Back at home, Brent reveals that he was behind the whole charade.
-Sammy's parents announce that his erratic behavior has caused them to set up an appointment with a mental institution for their son. Before he can be taken away though, Sammy breaks free and runs down to his parents' basement to grab the magic flashlight. He forces the rest of the family and Roxanne to follow him to his room, where he shines the light on Brent, revealing a hideous monster. Brent reveals that his mother made him invisible, so it would be easier for him to make friends without people seeing his hideous face.
-Sammy and his family can't stop being disgusted at how he has one head, two arms that aren't long enough to wrap around his body and dark stuff growing on top of his head (this explains that Brent has dark hair) instead of tendrils and suction pods and where is his antenna? And how can he see with only two eyes? Brent says that he just wants to be Sammy's friend. Simon asks Brent to be his friend and he needs him for his science project and begs his dad to let him keep him. Sammy's mom says that she has seen pictures of Brent's species in a textbook and says she will go have a look. Brent shyly says that he is called a human and mom says she remembers now. Sammy takes his five eyes away from him and asks his dad if he can keep him. Sammy's dad says no and he has to live in a zoo because he will get much better care there. Then he says "After all, humans are an endangered species!"
 ==Reprints and rereleases==
@@ Line 87: / Line 76: @@
 ----
-[[File:Mybestfriendisinvisible-uk.jpg|center|180px]]
+[[File:OS 57 My Best Friend is Invisible UK cover.jpg|center|180px]]
 | style="text-align: center;"|United Kingdom
 ----
@@ Line 154: / Line 143: @@
 | style="text-align: center;"| October 6, 2016
 | style="text-align: center;"| Shang Zhou Publishing
+|-
+| style="text-align: center;"|6
+|<p style="text-align: center;">''Besti Vinur Minn er ósýnilegur''</p>
+----
+[[File:Bestfriendicelandic.jpg||center|180px]]
+| style="text-align: center;"|Iceland
+----
+Italian
+| style="text-align: center;"|''My Best Friend is Invisible''
+| style="text-align: center;"| November 1st, 2018
+| style="text-align: center;"| Bokabeitan
 |}</onlyinclude>
 |-|
 Gallery =
 <gallery bordercolor="#007a00" hideaddbutton="true">
+OS 57 My Best Friend is Invisible UK cover.jpg|UK
-Mybestfriendisinvisible-uk.jpg|UK
 Mybestfriendisinvisible-spanish.jpg|Spanish
 Mybestfriendisinvisible-german.jpg|German
@@ Line 164: / Line 165: @@
 Mybestfriendisinvisible-korean.jpg|Korean
 Mybestfriendisinvisible-chinese2016.jpg|Chinese (2016)
+Icelandic_Best_Friend_is_Invisible.jpg|Icelandic
 </gallery></tabber>
@@ Line 171: / Line 173: @@
 <gallery position="left" hideaddbutton="true" spacing="small" widths="200" bordercolor="transparent" orientation="none" columns="4" captionalign="center" bordersize="none" navigation="true">
 Goosebumpswiki-tvepisode-button2.png|[[:My_Best_Friend_Is_Invisible/TV_Episode|Click here for a full article about the television adaptation.]]|link=:My_Best_Friend_Is_Invisible/TV_Episode
+</gallery>
+==Advertisement==
+<gallery widths="235" bordercolor="transparent" spacing="small" hideaddbutton="true">
+Nextmonth July 1997 OS57 GYG19 TV14 bookad from OS56.jpg|Book advertisement from ''[[The Curse of Camp Cold Lake]]''. Also advertises ''[[Escape from Camp Run-For-Your-Life]]'' and the ''[[Goosebumps Presents]]'' adaptation of "[[You Can't Scare Me!/TV episode|You Can't Scare Me!]]"
 </gallery>
 ==Artwork==
 <gallery widths="235" bordercolor="transparent" spacing="small" hideaddbutton="true">
-My Best Friend is Invisible - artwork.jpg|Original 1996 artwork by [[Tim Jacobus]].
+My Best Friend Is Invisible - artwork.jpg|Original 1996 artwork by [[Tim Jacobus]].
+[[The Curse of Camp Cold Lake]].
+</gallery>
+==Tear-Outs==
+The original printings of the book included bookmark and trading card [[Goosebumps (original series)/Tear-outs|tear-outs]].
+<gallery>
+Goosebumps_57_Best_Friend_is_Invisible_trading_card_front_and_back.jpg|Trading card for this book found in book #56
 </gallery>
 ==Trivia==
+*There's a small error on the cover of this book; if you look closely at Brutus' left leg, you'll see that it is slightly transparent.
-* When Roxanne and the whole class make fun of Sammy, he swore that he will pay her back. But when Brent scares the wits out of Roxanne, Sammy is angry at him.
+*The end twist is slightly similar to ''[[Welcome to Camp Nightmare]]'' in that everyone (except Brent) is revealed to not be human at the end.
-* This is the second book/episode where it's revealed that the main protagonist and their family are the real monsters. The first being ''[[The Girl Who Cried Monster]]''.
+*Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs' names are not mentioned in this book, but the episode refers to them as Norman and Beverly.
+*This book references Frosted Flakes, Corn Pops, and the New York Yankees.
+*The twist ending might be a reference to ''" Eye of the Beholder"'', an episode from the 1959 TV series called ''[[wikipedia:The_Twilight_Zone_(1959_TV_series)|The Twilight Zone]]''.
 ===References in other ''Goosebumps'' media===
 *[[Brent Green]] appears as a minor antagonist in the [[Goosebumps (film)|''Goosebumps'' film]]. He is refereed to as "The Invisible Boy".
 {{GoosebumpsOS}}
-[[Category:Goosebumps]]
 [[Category:Goosebumps (television series)]]
 [[Category:Aliens]]
 [[Category:Schools]]
 [[Category:Scientists]]
-[[Category:Human Villains]]
+[[Category:Original series]]
-[[Category:Villains]]
+[[Category:Bullies (topic)]]
-[[Category:Ghosts]]
-[[Category:Series 1]]
-[[Category:Villainesses]]
-[[Category:Bullies]]
 [[Category:Books Released In 1997]]
 [[Category:Books with a Monster from the film]]
 [[Category:Covers by Tim Jacobus]]
+[[Category:Pets (topic)]]
+[[Category:Teachers]]