Beekle lives on a far away island where imaginary friends live...before they are actually imagined by a real child. After Beekle is tired of waiting to imagined, he takes it upon himself to journey to the real world to find his friend. Once he is in the real world he does eventually meet his true friend and it is everything he dreamed it would be!
Reference:
Santat, D. (2014). The adventures of Beekle: The unimaginary friend. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.
Impressions:
The Adventures of Beekle is sure to please young readers with its premise and it's colorful, fun illustrations. This story holds great lessons of taking matters into your own hands and finding friendship. Beekle is an instantly likable character who I was cheering for the whole time. Readers will be cheering for Beekle through the story and the ending leaves room for the imagination to run wild with possibilities as to what might happen next!
Professional Review:
"If an imaginary friend is unimagined, does it become a real friend?
Beekle (a crowned white gumdrop of lovable cuteness) lives on a fantastic island with other creatures “waiting to be imagined by a real child.” After seeing his companions leave, one by one, Beekle loses faith that he will ever “be picked and given a special name,” and so he does “the unimaginable” and ventures forth to find his friend. Upon arriving at a port city, he observes adults going about their daily lives in monochrome, dingy settings that lack any spark of color or vitality. Perspectives that often isolate the tiny Beekle in corners or surround him with large figures accentuate his loneliness. Everything changes when he arrives at a playground awash in color and sees children playing with their imaginary friends—many of whom had been on his island. But even here, he still cannot find his special friend. Feeling sad, he climbs a tree, and from his perch, he hears a voice calling to him. Lo and behold, he meets his special friend, Alice. She’s imagined him after all, as evidenced by the picture he retrieves for her, which is of himself handing her a picture. In a delightful comic sequence, the pair become acquainted, and “[t]he world began to feel a little less strange.”
Welcome, Beekle. It’s nice to know you."
[Review of the book The adventures of Beekle: The unimaginary friend]. (March 2014). Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved from: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/dan-santat/the-adventures-of-beekle/Library Uses:
After reading The Adventures of Beekle together and discussing the imaginary friends in the story, provide students with a variety of play dough, google eyes, pom-poms, and pipe cleaners. Then, invite students to create and name their own imaginary friend. Depending on the age of the students, you could also invite them to write a story about something they could do with their imaginary friend.
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