Module 3: Caldecott Winners-- The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend

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Book Summary:

This is the imaginative tale of an imaginary friend. Beekle is longing for a real human friend. He is looked over time and time again so he does the only thing he can. He goes into the real world and starts to look for his real friend himself. He looks high and low. On the other side of the story is a little girl searching for her imaginary friend. She sees many imaginary friends, but they are not her imaginary friend. The little girl and Beekle find each other at just the right time.  It is a story of finding friendship not giving up on the idea of having a friend.

APA Citation:

Santat, D. (2014). The adventures of Beekle: The unimaginary friend. New York: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Impressions:

The art work in this book one the Caldecott award this past year and Dan Santat does deserve the award for this work. The artwork in this book is primarily digitally produced, but it has the feel of being drawn by hand. The use of a different color pallet for each world the imaginary and the real let the reader know where the story is taking place just by a quick glance. The story about an imaginary friend seeking out their real friend is an original story. I found the story sweet and imaginative and I loved the artwork. Overall I found it very deserving of the Caldecott award, great story supported by wonderfully fitting artwork.

Professional Review: Horn Book

It’s Boxing Day, friends. Time to talk about a sweet gift of a book. Because I know many of you are sneaking a peek at your phones and computers in between holiday cleanup, entertaining relatives, and furtive trips to the mall, I will make it a quick review.

Beekle is an extremely adorable imaginary friend who resembles a marshmallow, only with a dear little crown and a chubby three-fingered hand (plus thumb). The problem with Beekle is that no one imagines him, so he goes off on a journey to find a friend.

I am going to say right off that the first time I metBeekle, I thought, “Kids will like this, and adults who evaluate books will find it a bit too sweet.” But as I read it over and over, I found the first part to be true: kids love Beekle; and the second part to be true and false. Yes, it’s very sweet, but it has enough of the “real world” to take away the cloying quality that often accompanies a book about making friends. And there are some clever bits, too.

1.     The endpapers show kids with their imaginary friends. Only Beekle is alone on the opening end pages. On the closing pages, Beekle and bespectacled Alice are together.

2.     When Alice meets Beekle for the first time, it’s clear that she has imagined him because she has a picture of him in the tree with the star-shaped leaves.

3.     I love the spread that says, “Until he reached the real world.” Santat’s use of grays is spectacular. The only speck of color is Beekle in his sailboat. I can’t wait to get my second graders to talk about this page!

4.     Santat holds firmly to Beekle’s view of the world for the whole book, but the page where Beekle is observing the adult world (where only adults are eating cake, walking grimly through a subway station, and sleeping on the subway) will make a lot of adults stop and pause.

5.     The bright and colorful world of the playground, where the children from the endpapers are playing with their imaginary friends, is perfectly placed in the book. I was feeling a little downhearted after all that gray and gloom.

6.     Santat is not afraid to make the child feel Beekle’s emotions, and I like that, though I am pretty sure some folks are going to find some of these images manipulative. I dare anyone to see Beekle in his tree, all alone with the falling leaves, and not feelsomething, especially when you read the words, “But no one came.” When Alice passes the picture to Beekle, is there anyone who will not feel the drama of the first moments of friendship?

7.     The choice of colors — grays for the friend-free world, browns and oranges for the first moments of friendship, and bright yellow circles bathing the comic-strip scenes where Alice names Beekle — all add to the emotional punch.

Will this book get any attention from the Caldecott committee? I don’t know. I imagine it will be talked about and nominated for sure. And no matter what happens to it with the committee, young readers will love it. It has that “read it to me over and over” quality that parents and kids love.

Citation:

Smith, R. (2014). The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend. The Horn Book. Retrieved September 16, 2015, from http://www.hbook.com/2014/12/featured/beekle-unimaginary-friend/#_

Library Uses:
I would use this book in a display of Caldecott winners showing the change in artistry from the first winners until today.