On a far away island, imaginary friends are born and then wait to be imagined by a real child. One such imaginary friend waits and waits, but his time doesn't come. So he decides to go out into the world in search of his friend.
Beekle is a rather funny-looking imaginary friend--shapeless and colorless, but always expressive in his face. He goes to the playground and climbs trees, but still nothing. One day a girl named Alice calls to him, and they realize they’re perfect together.
Dan Santat’s illustrations are bursting with color, life and imagination. The endpages alone reveal the amount of thought that went into the creation of the various imaginary friends (a cloud for the kite-flyer, an octopus for the beach-goer, a rabbit for the would-be magician, etc). I'm guessing Beekle is a sort of blank canvas friend, because he and Alice bond through art and drawings. Santat portrays the real, drab world in grays, while the world of play and imagination is depicted in vibrant colors. The poignant story may refer to the imaginary, but that lengthy journey into the unknown is not unlike the real one that many children and adults must take in order to find the people they most cherish.
No comments:
Post a Comment