Have You Seen My Friend? The Adventures of Beekle! An Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat

HE WAS BORN ON AN ISLAND FAR AWAY WHERE IMAGINARY FRIENDS WERE CREATED.

HERE, THEY LIVED AND PLAYED, EACH EAGERLY AWAITING TO BE IMAGINED BY A REAL CHILD.

But Beekle must be hard to imagine, because he has been waiting for his turn far too long. At last he takes matters into his own pudgy hands and does the unimaginable: he sets out, captain of his fate, on his own, steering his own boat, crossing rough seas with fairly unimaginable creatures, and thinking of the friend that must be out there, somewhere, in the real world.

THE REAL WORLD WAS A STRANGE PLACE. NO KIDS WERE EATING CAKE. NO ONE STOPPED TO HEAR THE MUSIC.

Beekle has disembarked in a big city, where everyone seems to be bustling somewhere--but everyone is also in their own world, reading newspapers, listening to the music in their own ears, even catching a nap as they ride the subway. Nobody notices a doughy, blocky blob of a little guy hopefully wearing his paper crown. He's nobody's imaginary friend. He's invisible in the crowd, unimagined among the skyscrapers and busy traffic.

HE FELT VERY SAD. THEN HE HEARD....

"HELLO!"

There is a girl there. She can see him and she's talking to him. Shy at first, they smile.

THERE WAS SOMETHING ABOUT HER THAT FELT JUST RIGHT.

Finding the one who can imagine the real you is the theme of noted author and artist Dan Santat in his newest creation, The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend (Little Brown, 2014). Santat's narrative style is simple and yet evocative of the loneliness of the crowd. His artwork here is so varied and creative that it almost defies description, as he takes his main character from tropical island to the seascapes inhabited by unknown sea creatures, and into a hard-edged rectilinear urban scene in grim contrast to his pillowy, billowy little hero. The contrasting island to ocean to cityscape settings give Santat a chance to showcase his considerable illustrative chops, displayed in pencil, ink, watercolors, and Photoshop art, in a story of an imaginary friend like no other. "...Like Beekle's new friend, there's something here that feels just right as an "unimaginary" friendship creates a joyous, recognizable bond. A terrific addition to any library," says School Library Journal in its starred review.

Santat's inimitable illustrative style can be seen in his own Sidekicks and in his artwork in Mac Barnett's Oh No!: Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World and Oh No! Not Again!: (Or How I Built a Time Machine to save History) (Or at Least My History Grade) and Samantha Berger's Crankenstein.

Getting There! Are We There Yet? by Dan Santat

YOU ARE INVITED TO A BIRTHDAY PARTY.

WHO? GRANDMA

WHEN? OCTOBER 24, 2016

WHERE? 257 CAPLAN AVENUE

The car trip to Grandma's is always exciting! But after the first hour, it can feel like an eternity. You might find yourself saying,

"Are we there yet? This is taking forever!"

At first the boy in the backseat sets forth with a smile as the landscape speeds by and familiar places are left behind. But after awhile... the passing scene begins to be a blur and boredom sets in. And with boredom his mind begins to wander beyond the confines of the car's backseat.

What's that? An old steam locomotive pulling a stream of cars appears on a track parallel to the road, pursued by... a gang of Wild West train robbers, six-shooters ablaze, in hot pursuit! Even his parents in the front seat are dressed in 1880s garb, bonnet and all. And then...

The scene switches swiftly. The car seems to be grappled by a pirate ship, with maties swinging their cutlasses...

And suddenly there are medieval knights jousting with lances, and then Egyptian slavedrivers, overseeing the construction of the pyramids.... Then...

ROOOAAAR!

It's the Cretacious Era and huge raptors are in hot pursuit....

SO TAKE A SECOND TO SAVOR THE MOMENT YOU'RE IN.

THIS WILL...

HELP...

TIME... FLY...

BY.

And suddenly the family car is headed back to the future. They zoom into a town, THE FUTURE CITY! Everything looks vaguely familiar and yet different--all new, all lighted brilliantly, including one of those electric signs with the time and... the date.

TODAY IS OCTOBER 24, 2059

And when they drive up to their destination, 257 Caplan Avenue, what they see is not Grandma's familiar white house! Can they somehow be 43 years late for her birthday party?

We've all been there--as adults in the harassed driver's seat and as kids in that backseat who feel as if they're stuck in a time warp, and in his latest, Are We There Yet? noted author-illustrator Dan Santat takes that scene and lets it spin out, with the highway that leads both ways in time, into the past and into the future. Santat's illustrations, set in a sort of time-hop sepia tones, and his clever book design, with text printed around and outside the frames of the illustrations, cause the reader to continue reading by turning the book upside down and turning left-hand pages toward the back of the book and then reversing the process to go forward in time and eventually back into the frame story itself.

Will his parents manage to steer their sedan somehow back in time to savor Grandma's birthday party? Will the kid appreciate sharing that moment of time at Grandma's birthday party?

Grandma's beribboned birthday gift turns out to be a clock, that symbol of time and time's passing, one that can be set back and set forward at will, a reminder of Santat's existential theme, with an unremarked but poignant tip of the author's hat to importance of Einstein's fourth dimension--time, and to that old saw--"There's no time like the present!"

Santat's work (see his Caldecott-winning The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend here) tend to celebrate that power of the imagination to take us outside ourselves and outside our own space-time continuum, and this one offers several layers of meaning, all the while playing with the format of the picture book itself, combining standard full-page color illustrations with comic-book-style frames, and even reversing the Western rule that books always move from left to right. Younger children will enjoy the passing characters and scenes beyond the windows, and older kids will be intrigued by the time-play and innovative book format and the always-inviting idea of travelling through time. A timely winner for Santat!

(Drumroll) The Envelope, Please! The 2015 American Library Association's Awards for Children's and Young Adult Literature

There's snow in Chicago, and that means it is time for the premier children's and young adults awards, especially the venerable John Newbery Medal, given for the best work of literature to the author, and the Randolph Caldecott Medal
for the best-illustrated book, both announced at the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting, February 2.

And the winners are...

The Newbery Award goes to Kwame Alexander for his novel The Crossover (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014). In my review of March 19, 2014, I said "Watch for this one to take some honors in the awards for books debuting this year, because it's definitely got game--on-court suspense, real-life characters, and a moving narrative that confronts life changes with all the right moves. Slam-dunk!" Yeah!

Newbery Honor Medals went to El Deafo (Amulet/Abrams, 2014) by Cece Bell, and Brown Girl Dreaming (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014) by Jacqueline Woodson, which also was the winner of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. (See review here.)

The Caldecott Medal for illustrations goes to Dan Santat for his The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend (Little, Brown and Company, 2014), reviewed here.

Caldecott Honors wen to The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandisky's Abstract Art, (Alfred A Knopf, 2014), illustrated by Mary Grandpre'; Nana in the City (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Clarion, 2014); Sam and Dave Dig a Hole (Candlewick Press, 2014),illustrated by John Klassen; Viva, Frida (Roaring Brook Press, 2014) illustrated by Yuyi Morales; The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus (Eerdman Boks, 2014, illustrated by Melissa Sweet; and This One Summer (First Second, 2014), illustrated by Jillian Tamaki.

The Coretta Scott King Author Awards went to Kwame Alexander for The Crossover (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014); Marilyn Nelson for How I Discovered Poetry (Dial Books, 2014): and Kekla Magoon for How It Went Down (HenryHolt, 2014).

The Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards went to Christopher Myers for Firebird (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2014), Christian Robinson for Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker, (Chronicle Books, 2014), and Frank Morrison, illustrator of Little Melba and Her Big Trombone (Lee and Low, 2014).

The King-Steptoe New Talent Author Award went to Jason Reynolds' When I Was The Greatest (Atheneum Books, 2014)

The Coretta Scott King/Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award was given to librarian and literacy advocate Deborah D. Taylor.

The Michael L. Printz Award for Literature for Young Adults was given to Jandy Nelson for I'll Give You the Sun, (Dial Books, 2014).  Honor awards went also to Jossie Ann Foley, The Carnival at Bray, Jenny Hubbard for And We Stay; Andrew Smith, for Grasshopper Jungle, and This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki.

The Schneider Family Book Award for books about disabilities went to A Boy and a Jaguar by Alan Rabinowitz (Houghton Mifflin, 2014) and Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin, published by Feiwel and Friends, 2014). (See reviews here and here.

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for Beginning Reader Books was given to You Are Not Small, by Anna King (Two Lions Press, 2012), and honor medals went to Mr. Putter and Tabby Turn the Page (Houghton Mifflin  (Harcourt, 2014), and Waiting Is Not Easy!  (Hyperion Books, 2014). (See reviews here and here.

The YALSA Award for Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction went to Popular Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Greek, (Dutton Books, 2014) by Maya Van Wagenen.  Honor books include Shane Burcaw's Laughing at My Nightmare (Roaring Brook, 2014), Candace Fleming's The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, & the Fall of Imperial Russia and Ida Tarbell: The Woman Who Challenged Big Business--and Won (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2014) by Emily Arnold McCully, (see my review here).

The Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children's Video was awarded to Weston Woods Studios, Paul Gagne, and Melissa R. Elard, for their film of the Caldecott Honor Book Me . . . Jane (See review of the book here.)

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to author-illustrator Donald Crews, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement in the area of young adult literature want to author Sharon Draper.

A complete listing of book and media awards presented today by the American Library Association may be found here.

Father Knows Best: Dad and the Dinosaur by Gennifer Choldenko

Nicholas was afraid of the dark outside his door where the giant bugs lived, and the underside of manhole covers.

His dad was not afraid of anything.

Little Nick wants to be like his Dad, brave and daring, and he has a secret that helps him be that way.

I needed a dinosaur.

Nick has a little toy T. Rex that gives him the fearless nature he desires. When he clutches it in his hand, he feels the power of a dinosaur within.

When Little Nick had his dinosaur in his pocket, he was just as brave as Big Nick.

With his little plastic talisman in his pocket Little Nick courageously climbs to the top of the rock wall. At a a soccer game, he tucks it inside his sock and charges fearlessly down the field, scoring a goal against the rival team's goalie, nicknamed The Gorilla.

But after the game, Nick discovers that his dinosaur is gone. He searches the field until Mom makes him leave for home. Nick's not hungry at dinner, and when he goes to bed without his dinosaur under his pillow, even the dark in his own room seems full of fearful things like those giant bugs in the bushes and the octopus-tentacled terrors under the manhole.

And when Dad comes home late from work, he hears Nick, still twisting and turning in his bed.

"Bad dreams, buddy?" Dad asks quietly.

Nick whispered, "I lost my dinosaur.

He's the brave one. Not me."

"Let's go find him then," said Dad.

There are many things Dad could have said at that moment, sensible things, like "You can look for it in the morning," or "Don't be silly. It's just a plastic toy". But he didn't. What he said was the absolutely right thing at the right time, in Jennifer Choldenko's insightful salute to fatherhood, Dad and the Dinosaur (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2017).

In a late-night expedition that Dad describes only as "guy stuff" to Mom, Little Nick learns from Big Nick that all guys get scared sometimes, and that just goes with the territory. Newbery winner Gennifer Choldenko's sensitive narration tells the sweet story of what dads do best, and Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat's usually bold and avant garde style is muted in his warm illustrations of an ordinary Everyfamily, with more sober and ominous dark tones to evoke Nick's frightful imaginings. Santat also utilizes a huge, shadowy T. Rex overlay on his pages as a sort of reassuring spirit animal that confers a dose of courage when Nick needs it. As Publishers Weekly puts it in their starred review, "Dads get it... being brave takes work and ... a dinosaur." And having a good dad helps, too.

Gennifer Choldenko earned her Newbery Medal for Al Capone Does My Shirts (Tales from Alcatraz), (read my review of her complete Tales of Alcatraz novels here), and Dan Santat took his Caldecott for The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend. (read review here).

Getting It Together: After the Fall (How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again) by Dan Santat

HIGH UP ON THIS WALL!

I KNOW, IT'S AN ODD PLACE FOR A EGG TO BE, BUT I LOVED BEING CLOSE TO THE BIRDS.

Humpty Dumpty knows that he has a fragile physicality, being an egg and all, but up there, in the air, close to his beloved birds, is where he wants to be.

BUT THEN ONE DAY, I FELL.

(I'M SORT OF FAMOUS FOR THAT PART.)

The Great Fall changes Humpty's life drastically. He takes a new job as a grocery store clerk, but he's so afraid of heights that even stocking the top shelves is scary. Walking by that wall on the way to work every day reminds him of what happened. He's definitely suffering from post-traumatic fall syndrome.

But the worst part is that he has to watch the birds from the ground, flat-footed. The birds soar high above, flitting happily from steeple to tower. Watching from below is not the same as being up there among them. Life on the ground is getting Humpty Dumpty down.

THEN ONE DAY AN IDEA FLOATED BY.

Actually, it was a paper airplane that floated by, but the idea of controlled flight lifts Humpty's hopes. Perhaps he can build a device that will allow him to rejoin the birds in the air. He builds several flying machines, but it seems that what goes up still comes down. It's a definite downer. And there is definitely a certain gravity in that realization. Humpty realizes that there is no easy way out of his dilemma.

It's time for Plan B.

Humpty starts to climb that wall. He's terrified. Totally. He knows that he's best known for falling. But then...

He thinks of all the things he's been missing, and he keeps on climbing.

HOPEFULLY YOU'LL REMEMBER ME AS THE EGG WHO GOT BACK UP....

There are second acts in children's literature, in Dan Santat's new picture book parable on the importance of getting-back-on-the bike-type courage, After the Fall (How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again) (Roaring Brook, 2017), shows. Santat, the Caldecott Award winning author-illustrator (for The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend(see review here) is brave enough to use even the famed nursery rhyme crackup Humpty Dumpty as his doughty hero in this sweet little story of second chances in life. Even Santat's endpapers are clever, showing the iconic fish out of water trying to adapt. A funny and meaningful tale of how it's never too late to re-imagine yourself.

Brand-New Beginning: A New Day by Brad Meltzer

The Week has an employee problem. Sunday is on strike! The quiet girl who has long held the job of being Sunday has quit! The other days of the Week are distraught! How can you begin the week (or end it, depending on your point of view) without a Sunday? To be a proper week there must be seven days on deck at all times. But Sunday has submitted an official resignation. She complains that she is not being properly appreciated for the conscientious way she has done her job.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH WORK IT TAKES TO GIVE THE WORLD A BEAUTIFUL, FREE DAY... TO PLAY, TO PRAY, TO SLEEP AWAY... TO EAT RASPBERRY SORBET?"

Everyone else gets their free day and nobody cares if she's doing okay!

THE OTHERS ARE AGHAST!

The other Days put up HELP WANTED posters right away!

WANTED!

NEW DAY!

Must Be Tranquil!

The applicants have some unusual suggestions to replace the ordinary old Sunday: BUNDAY, FUNDAY, DOGDAY (EVERYONE gets a puppy!), CATURDAY (for those who prefer cats), WORSTVICE-PRESIDENTDAY (suggested by Elbridge Gerry), and (Yikes!) BIGBURPDAY!

Think it can't get worse? How about KNIGHTSWHOSWORDSAREHERRINGSDAY? Or MYDOGSMELLSLIKECORNCHIPSDAY!

And then a wee girl appears with a tiny potted plant she's grown for Sunday!

"I GREW THIS ONE FOR YOU... TO SAY THANKS!" SHE LISPS.

And a little appreciation is the big game-changer, in Brad Meltzer's just published A New Day (Dial Books, 2021). With the quirky and vivid over-the-top illustrations of award-winning artist Dan Santat to keep the inspired absurdity going, this new one by the team of Meltzer and Santat looks like a hit. For preschoolers just learning the days of the week to sophisticated primary graders who can't get enough of this pair's clever wackiness, this one succeeds in making the point that all of us need to know that we are appreciated!

"It’s a lovely and apt way to tie a bow on all the preceding silliness, with enough room left over to end on a cat joke!" says Publisher's Weekly.

By the way, Dan Santat is the author-illustration of the Caldecott Award winner, The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend (Read my review here.

"Not Fade Away!" Imaginary Fred by Eoin Colfer

BEING ALONE IS NO FUN.

At least, being alone is not good when the result is loneliness. And Sam is lonely.

But there's an app for that. He's called Fred. He's a turquoise-toned collection of pixels and he is available for lonely kids.

IF the conditions are right, Fred can appear in a flash of lightning, available for best friend duty.

FRED FLOATED LIKE A FEATHER IN THE WIND...UNTIL A LONELY CHILD WISHED FOR HIM.

And Fred can be very versatile. He tries hard to do whatever the kid imagines a friend can do with him. He can shoot free throws... or he can be the basketball flying through the hoop. There's just one problem for Fred. His job never seemed to last very long.

ONE DAY A FRIEND WOULD FIND A REAL FRIEND IN THE REAL WORLD, ONE WHO WOULDN'T HAVE TO BE IGNORED WHEN GROWNUPS WERE AROUND.

WHEN THIS DAY CAME, FRED WOULD FEEL HIMSELF FADING.

Call it the Tinkerbell Effect. When Fred's friend doesn't need him anymore, he starts to fade, pixel by pixel, until he's just a wisp of himself and the wind blows him away.

And then a friendless boy named Sam wishes for a friend, and ZAP! Fred reports for duty. They do everything together.  They make up plays to perform and play music together. They build a clubhouse with its own sign that reads...

[DRAMATIC DUO]

This time Fred doesn't want Sam to find a forever friend to replace him. He wants to stay and play with Sam always. But when Sam meets a girl named Sammi at a party, it looks like friendship at first sight. They do all the things together that Fred used to do with Sam. Sam is sensitive and tells Fred not to fret; he's his main man forever. Still, the more Sam and Sammi play together, the more Fred notices that sadly he is beginning to fade.

"I CAN SEE THROUGH MY HAND," THOUGHT FRED.

But there's one thing about Sammi. She, too, has an imaginary friend, Frieda, and Fred and Frieda discover that they have something more than pixels in common--the friendship of their friends. And then they notice a promising change in themselves.

Their pixels seem to be becoming permanent

As the two twosomes become a friendly foursome, it looks like nobody is going to fade away, in the imaginative collaboration of noted middle reader author Eoin Colfer and Caldecott-winning artist Oliver Jeffers in their Imaginary Fred (Harper, 2015). Jeffers' witty and wispy pen-and-ink drawings are the perfect medium for portraying an imaginary friend, setting off Colfer's quirky characters skillfully as together they explore the ineffable nature of friendship with the help of a bit of inventive fantasy. Says the New York Times reviewer, "Jeffers could illustrate a tax return and make it funny; his charming, willowy pen-and-ink artwork adds his trademark irreverence to this gentle tale about the ever-shifting landscape of friendship."

Pair this one with last year's Caldecott winner, Dan Santat's The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend. (Read review here.)

Into the Woods: I Know Sasquatch by Jess Bradley

Everyone thinks they know what Sasquatch is like: He is...

VERY SMELLY!

VERY LARGE! VERY MEAN!

But who's afraid of the big, bad Sasquatch?

Not our girl--even though she's read scary things about him in a book.

Bravely she ventures forth into the woods behind her house, hoping for a spotting of the legendary "monster."

THEN SUDDENLY, I SPOTTED A MYSTERIOUS CLUMP OF FUR.

AND A LARGE FOOTPRINT!

Her first impulse is to scream and run, but as she takes to her heels, her Super Bub bubble gum packet spills behind her on the path. And when she finally turns for a quick look....

...I KNEW I HAD NOTHING TO FEAR.

Who could be afraid of a furry blue Bigfoot blowing an enormous Super Bub bubble as big as his head?

He politely presents his signed photo ID from the Society of Cryptids. Sasquatch then takes our girl on a genteel tour of the woodlands, introducing some of his friends, Yuri the Bear and Sandy the Bunny, not to mention the more, er, exotic cryptids Ogopogo and Jackalope. He shows off his family tree and points out that most of the media frenzy sightings are really those of his eccentric second cousin Murray. Over a tasty picnic he bemoans the bad press his family usually gets.

But our creative girl has a solution for that cryptid dilemma, too:

INVITE HIM TO MY HOUSE AND MAKE THIS BOOK!

Jess Bradley's just published I Know Sasquatch (Fiction Picture Books) (Capstone Books, 2015) offers young readers a light-hearted introduction to one of North America's most notorious legends. Her Sasquatch and main character are blackline cartoon characters collaged over photos of genuine woodlands and set against a blue-lined notebook background, and her kid-friendly soft blue, pink-nosed "monster" smells like blueberries (although he also apparently loves watermelon when he can get it). Big fun with Bigfoot!

Pair this one with Dan Santat's Caldecott Award-winning The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend or Kent Redeker's Don't Squish the Sasquatch! (see my review here) for more tales from the wild side.