The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend

This is what the book looks like without the cover…because I have a toddler and all book covers are immediately removed.

Author: Dan Santat
Illustrator: Dan Santat
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Purchased: McNally Jackson

Why: It is almost impossible for me to go into a bookstore and NOT buy something. Now that I have a child, that is magnified by 1000. This book in particular captured my attention because of the cover, beautiful illustrations, and the size (it was taller than almost everything else on the shelf).

Pros: This.book.is.gorgeous. I cannot get over the illustrations, they are so beautifully done. When I picked up the book, I could tell from the first page that I wanted to add it to our collection.

Could you resist this first page? I don’t think so.

The illustrations continue to captivate throughout. On one of the more spare pages, where our hero is doubting whether he will find the friend he has searched so long for, I still find myself admiring the leaves on the tree, each one of which is a star.

And I haven’t even touched on the story yet! It’s a great story, about an imaginary friend who goes out searching for his friend instead of continuing to wait around for his friend to imagine him. He faces danger and a strange new place (the real world) on his quest, which of course ends happily. I also liked that although Beekle seemed to think his friend would be a boy (at least based on the illustrations at the start of the book), his friend ends up being a little girl, Alice.

This book is a keeper. My son was enthralled with it from the first read-through, which almost never happens. Go get this one – you won’t regret it.

Durability: 4 out of 5 bite marks. Since it’s bigger, it’s tougher to carry around, and thus has less of a chance of being eaten.