Blog #2 (Caldecott Picture Book)

A couple of weeks ago I was at my local Barnes & Noble looking around (as I tend to do), and in the children’s section I came across a book called The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. The book had a cute—if not sad looking—cover with a black gorilla and a little grey elephant sitting back-to-back. The synopsis on the back read something along the lines of “an easy-going gorilla named Ivan (who lives in a mall) befriends a small elephant named Ruby” and I thought okay, this sounds cute enough. However, since I had already picked up another book Everything You Need to Know to Ace Math in One Big Notebook by Workman Publishing, I placed the book back on the shelf and filed it under the “to read later” section of my brain.

Which brings me to how I ended-up selecting the book I did for this second blog. When I read the assignment I immediately did a search on Amazon for “award winning children’s books” and on the first page of results was The One and Only Ivan. Not wanting to wait two days for prime shipping, I went to my local library to see if they had a copy; sadly, the only copy they had was currently checked-out. So before heading over to Barnes and Noble I stopped in the children’s section and came across a cute looking picture book called The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend By Dan Santat. Remembering that picture books were allowed for this second assignment I checked it out.

The book was about an imaginary friend (whom we later learn is named Beekle) born on “an island far away where imaginary friends were created”. Beekle and the other imaginary friends played together as they waited patiently for a “real child” to imagine them and bring them over to “the real world”. Night after night Beekle stared up at the stars waiting to be imagined by a child. One day, realizing that he might never be imagined, Beekle set out to find his child on his own. After much traveling, Beekle made his way to “the real world” and came across a playground which had children and their imaginary friends playing together. Having “a good feeling about the place”, Beekle searched and searched, wishing and hoping his child would appear. But no one came. Then a voice called out “Hello!” to Beekle and Beekle, sensing something friendly and familiar, came down to greet her. After a little while Alice (as the girl was called) and Beekle (as he was now named) realized “they were perfect together” and the two of them “had many new adventures”.

My favorite part about his book is the illustrations; each page is beautifully designed, and the colors are just rich and beautiful. The premise of the story itself I was not so fond of (in that I use to watch a cartoon show called Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends on Cartoon Network and the book’s explanation of how imaginary friends are created is counter to how I believe imaginary friends are created. Which is to say, imaginary friends are born once they are conceived and drawn by children. Not vice versa), but that aside, I was also unhappy with the ending in that it is very vague. Closing on “and together they did the unimaginable” while riding away on a boat from the real world with other children’s imaginary creatures toward the imaginary world (that is how I interpreted the last illustration) leaves me wondering whether a “real child” could see/interact with other imaginary friends, and whether a “real child” could make it back to the island of imaginary friends. And if so, what would happen? What would be the consequences/repercussions?

While the book was cute (as I assumed it would be from the cover), the only reason I would add The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend to my personal classroom library would be for the beautiful illustrations--they really are that beautiful.

Books Mentioned in The Post:
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
Everything You Need to Know About Math in One Big Fat Notebook by Workman Publishing
The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat