The Adventures of Beekle by Dan Santat

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat. Little, Brown, 2014. 40 pages.

Reading Level: Picture Books, ages 4-8

Bottom Line: The Adventures of Beekle, winner of the 2015 Caldecott medal, provides a quirky but loveable look at how children acquire their “imaginary” companions.

Where do imaginary friends come from? Beekle “was born on an island far away where imaginary friends were created. Here, they lived and played, each eagerly waiting to be imagined by a real child.” Every night, fancifully conceived “friends,” in every possible shape, receive their call from little children in the real world, but Beekle’s turn never seems to come. Finally, weary of imagining life with his special friend, Beekle decides to set out for the real world himself, where he encounters a bewildering array of adults who have no use for him. But then there’s a park…and a playground…and a tree…and under the tree is a little girl named Alice. “Her face was friendly and familiar and there was something about her that felt just right.” With untold adventures ahead, the end is only the beginning.

It’s a pleasant little story with luminous illustrations and perhaps not much resonance for a child who doesn’t have imaginary friends. Most of the pleasure from this book will come from the types of “friends” little kids supposedly dream up, like animated drums and psychedelic octopi and personable puzzle pieces (that one is a puzzler). Beekle himself is a puffy marshmallow-like being distinguished only by a paper crown, who seems very friendly and achieves a remarkable range of facial expressions with a few dots and lines. (Visually-oriented readers may want to study these.) Whatever the value of imaginary friends (seems limited), the story is a pleasant celebration of friendship, which can make the world “feel a little less strange.”

Cautions: None

Overall Rating: 4 (out of 5)

• Worldview rating: 3.5
• Artistic rating: 4.5

Categories: Picture Books, Award Winners, Fantasy