The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend
The Adventures of Beekle
The Unimaginary Friend
By: Dan Santat
I bought this book twice. Last year at the Scholastic Book Fair there was a paperback copy of The Adventures of Beekle and the cover drew me in. I didn’t read it before I added it to my stack. At the time, I didn’t know it was a Caldecott Nominee—but the cover was so inviting and well crafted that it makes sense. (Honestly, if you had told me it was a nominee at the time I wouldn’t have known what that meant.)
That night I read the book and really liked it. The illustrations inside the book are just as enticing as the cover and the story is solid.
Even though I liked the book, I didn’t really think about it much until this fall when we went back to school. We were putting up the new Caldecott poster when I saw that The Adventures of Beekle was the 2015 winner. A Caldecott award is given to an illustrator for the most distinguished children’s picture book of the year. If you want to see what other books have made the list, go here! There are a lot of great books on the list.
This Christmas I bought a hardcover copy. I wanted to have a copy that would last and sit on a shelf nicely. And I didn’t mind spending money on it twice. In fact, I’m adding this book to my list of children’s book that I can give to the young people in my life.
So let’s talk about the story. The book opens up to a world where all of the imaginary friends are waiting to be thought of—it’s a bright and fun world. And Beekle is waiting for his friend. Eventually he gets tired of waiting and he ventures into the real world. He sees that the real word is kind of scary until he finds his friend.
I read this book with my second grade friend, and seeing how he identified with the characters in the book was moving. He liked that it had a happy ending and he liked that the friends found each other.
Not only is this book about friendship, but it’s also about the importance of being creative and having adventures.
It’s great, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in children’s books.
