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Summary
Summary
The importance of imaginary friends is very real in this picture book adventure from the author of Say Hello to Zorro! and lead character designer for Despicable Me , Finding Nemo , and Monsters, Inc .
Phillip and Brock are best friends. Everyone can see Phillip, but only Phillip can see Brock.
A night at the Big Fair is all fun and games until Phillip gets sleepy, heads home, and forgets Brock!
Brock misses Phillip. And Phillip misses Brock. Will they reunite? With the help of another pair of pals, they just might. Because even imaginary friends get lost sometimes. Finding them is part of the adventure.
Author Notes
Carter Goodrich has illustrated sixteen New Yorker covers and was the lead character designer for Brave, Ratatouille (for which he won the International Animated Film Society's Annie Award for character design), and Despicable Me . He has designed characters for many other beloved animated films, including Finding Nemo ; Monsters, Inc ; and Open Season . Of the films he has worked on, four have gone on to win Academy Awards. A Rhode Island School of Design graduate, he has twice been awarded the gold medal from the Society of Illustrators in New York. His picture books include We Forgot Brock! , Say Hello to Zorro! , Zorro Gets an Outfit , Mister Bud Wears the Cone , A Creature Was Stirring , and The Hermit Crab . Carter lives in Los Angeles, California. Be sure to visit Carter at CarterGoodrich.com.
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Enter swashbuckling, chopper-riding, pencil-mustache sporting imaginary friend Brock. Despite his parent's dubious looks and disbelief, Phillip finds Brock's jokes hilarious and generally enjoys spending "all their time goofing around together." That is, until one fateful trip to the fair when Brock and Phillip are separated after the former decides to ride the "Brain Shaker" and the latter falls asleep on his father's shoulder. Phillip wakes in a panic on the ride home, realizing they have forgotten Brock. Brock becomes frightened without Phillip, seeking the help of a little girl who can actually see him. Anne and her own imaginary friend, Princess Sparkledust, take pity on Brock and bring him home. Even though he enjoys his new friends, adventures aren't quite the same without Phillip. Luckily, Phillip is out looking for Brock and when the two are finally reunited, they have two new friends to show for their harrowing tale. Goodrich's illustrations perfectly portray the drama and humor of life with an imaginary friend. VERDICT This title will pair nicely with Dan Santat's The Adventures of Beekle (Little, Brown, 2014) in a themed storytime on imaginary friends.-Jenna Boles, Greene County Public Library, Beavercreek, OH © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
With his skull-and-crossbones T-shirt, amplified musculature, scraggly hair, and ninja swords, Brock looks like he rode his chopper straight off the set of Sons of Anarchy. But he's actually the best friend ever, and Phillip adores him. Brock is also imaginary-"Whatever that means," says the sympathetic narrator. Then one day, Brock is separated from Phillip at the Big Fair; lost and lonely, he's taken in by a girl and her imaginary friend, the resplendently girly Princess Sparkle Dust. Pretty soon, "the three of them began to invent games and tell each other stories." Has Brock moved on for good? Goodrich (Mister Bud Wears the Cone) draws Brock and the Princess Sparkle Heart with the loving crayonlike work (black for Brock, purple for the princess) of a child artist; they're flattened, cut-out figures in a dimensional, full-color world, but their emotional vividness is as clear as can be. What starts as a familiar story of pretend play and dramatic irony turns into something stranger and more beautiful-a Möbius strip of fantasy and reality, with happy endings all around. Ages 4-8. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Phillip's parents can't see his imaginary friend, tough-guy motorcyclist Brock, so they don't notice that they've left Brock at the fair. Luckily, Anne and her imaginary friend take Brock home; eventually, Brock and Phillip are reunited. Goodrich's clever watercolor illustrations add depth and heart to this friendship story. (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Phillip and Brock are best friends. They spend all their time goofing around together. The only problem is his parents can see Phillip but not Brock. This tale of a boy and his imaginary friend is told in one or two sentences per page, along with watercolor illustrations that depict a cheery, 1950s-feeling home. Phillip's parents play along with their son's imaginary friend, Brock. One evening when the family returns from the fair, disaster strikes. In a two-page spread, despair consumes Phillip's face as he sobs, "WE FORGOT BROCK!" Back at the fair, however, Brock meets Anne, who introduces him to Princess Sparkle Dust and offers to take him home with them. Though Anne and Princess Sparkle Dust try to cheer him up, Brock misses Phillip. Eventually the pair is reunited, and when Brock introduces Phillip to his new friends, they all become best friends, though his parents can still see only the two children. Goodrich plays with perspective, sometimes including his imaginary characters, done in monochromatic lines as if by a child, in an illustration and sometimes not, for funny counterpoint. Though the illustrations are sweet, the story feels slight, and it adds little new or exciting to the imaginary-friend shelf. In addition, the stereotypical renderings of Brock as a sword-wielding, black-and-white pirate and Princess Sparkle Dust as a big-haired, purple princess are unfortunate. Forget Brock. (Picture book. 4-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Phillip and Brock are inseparable. Anytime Phillip's around, permanently clad in a red cape, cowboy boots, and an enthusiastic grin, Brock, a barrel-chested, chopper-riding, mustachioed tough guy in aviators, can't be far behind. Though his parents think Brock is only imaginary, Phillip knows better. That's why it's so devastating when they accidentally leave Brock behind at the carnival. Luckily for Brock, another pair of friends, Anne and Princess Sparkle-Dust, see forlorn Brock on the Ferris wheel and take him home. When Phillip and Brock are finally reunited, their merry band of pals doubles in size. While picture books about imaginary friends are nothing new, Goodrich's contribution is a visual standout and an object lesson in the humor of contrast. His wry, deadpan text appears next to lustrous, realistic watercolor paintings of exuberant Phillip and his blasé parents, while gigantic, hammy Brock is rendered in childlike scribbly black crayon. With quiet gestures and small variations in facial expressions, Goodrich teases out a remarkable depth of feeling, particularly from Brock, who, upon meeting the majestic Princess Sparkle-Dust, appearing in similarly scribbly purple, looks positively sheepish. While this would make a perfect read-aloud, the illustrations are strong enough that even little ones not quite ready to read independently will get the gist of the story from the pictures alone. Hilarious and heartwarming in equal measure.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2015 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
"IT IS THROUGH fantasy that children achieve catharsis," Maurice Sendak said when he accepted the Caldecott Medal for "Where the Wild Things Are" in 1964. "It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things." In four new picture books about imaginary friends, conjured companions of all kinds help children confront the beastly parts of life. In these books, the children's situations change when they meet real-life friends, but reassuringly, their chimerical pals never disappear. The Wild Things in Carter Goodrich's funny and endearing "We Forgot Brock!" are loneliness, parental detachment and silent adult disapproval. Goodrich, who has illustrated New Yorker covers, along with picture books including "Mister Bud Wears the Cone," has created a buoyant tale of friendship. Phillip, an ebullient red-haired boy, revels in the antics of his imaginary playmate, Brock, a pirate clad in polka-dot leggings who is a linchpin of fun. Goodrich renders Brock in black crayon, evoking a child-drawn paper doll. It's no wonder that Phillip has conjured Brock, since Phillip's soul-deadened parents seem to have wandered out of the 1950s. His father wears a tie while watching TV; his mother knits beside him, her coiffure immobile. Neither ever laughs in this bright watercolor world. They acknowledge Brock only grudgingly. When Brock is left behind at a fair, crisis ensues. "WE FORGOT BROCK!" Phillip wails. Back on the Ferris wheel, he's comforted by a little girl, Anne, and her own purple-crayoned mythical playmate. Children facing disapproval of their imaginary worlds will find companionship, and adult readers will long for a sequel in which Phillip's mother ditches the vacuum she wields on the final page and runs off with her own Brock. At the beginning of "Lenny & Lucy," by Philip C. Stead and Erin E. Stead, an over-loaded car chugs across the page, through a forest of tall trees: Peter's family is moving to a new home. "I think this is a terrible idea," Peter declares. "I want to go back." The warmth and large-heartedness on display in the Steads' Caldecott Medal-winning "A Sick Day for Amos McGee" suffuses every page, but with a darker sensibility. Erin Stead's mesmerizing illustrations subtly evoke the fear and pain of a young boy starting his life over. The "dark unfriendly" woods are black and white, while only Peter's sweater and shoes; his dog, Harold; his father's jacket; and various objects (the front door of their new house, a leaf) are colored. To keep the menacing forest at bay, Peter constructs "Lenny, Guardian of the Bridge" out of pillows and blankets; then he builds him a friend named Lucy. The two gentle guardians stand up for the first time when Peter's new neighbor, Millie, appears with binoculars, marshmallows and a stirring expression of trepidation and hope. "Lenny & Lucy" reminds us that it takes a small army of companions, real and imaginary, to face the dark unknown. The imaginary playmate takes canine form in Edward van de Vendel's "The Dog That Nino Didn't Have," translated from Dutch by Laura Watkinson. Anton Van Hertbruggen's beautiful, arresting illustrations depict Nino's loneliness with a striking intensity; his dusky palette of dark greens, rusty reds and mustard yellows, a landscape dotted with A-frame cabins and a wood-paneled station wagon impart a vintage feel. We learn one cause of Nino's melancholy when his traveling father appears in a pilot's uniform, agitated, clutching a phone, surrounded by flamingos. "The dog that he didn't have heard whatever Nino heard. On the phone. With Dad. Who was calling from a country far, far away," van de Vendel writes. On the next page, Nino is alone on his bed with his imaginary dog, who "liked tears. It loved the taste of salty water." One day, Nino's imaginary dog is replaced by a real dog. Yet something is still missing, until Nino realizes he can keep conjuring not only the imaginary dog but an array of animals. Though the translation occasionally sounds clunky ("This dog might not know so much about Dad and the phone") and the all-capitals type-face feels jarring, the book is a perceptive and moving exploration of childhood yearning. On the last page, Nino sleeps, guarded by his imaginary giraffe and bear, his real dog and - closest to him - the dog he did not have. In "Imaginary Fred," the illustrator Oliver Jeffers, whose picture books include the hilarious and exuberant "Stuck" and "The Day the Crayons Quit," teams with Eoin Colfer, author of the "Artemis Fowl" series, to tell a story from the imaginary friend's perspective. Fred is an ambitious imaginary boy: "He tried really hard to be the best imaginary friend he could be." Fred dreams of a companion who won't abandon him for a human counterpart, a situation that causes his dotted body to fade away. Then he meets Sam, his ideal human friend, he believes, until a real-life girl, Sammi, enters the picture. Fortunately, along with Sammi comes the imaginary, violin-playing Frieda. "We need to practice," Frieda demands. "Or we'll never get to Carnegie Hall." Eventually, Fred and Frieda seldom see their human friends, but their bodies never fade, which flummoxes "imaginary scientists" and makes Fred and Frieda "quite famous in the imaginary community." We learn that "a statue was commissioned to be erected in the sky above their imaginary house." 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. These books celebrate children's vibrant and cathartic imaginary lives. And why should any fiction-reading adult disapprove (are you listening, Brock-ignoring parents of Phillip)? After all, books provide imaginary companions to readers of all ages, whether they're named Paddington, Hermione Granger, Elizabeth Bennet or Sherlock Holmes. These friends nourish and sustain us. They tame our Wild Things, and the imaginary scientists are right: They all deserve statues. MARGO RABB writes for both children and adults. Her most recent book is the young adult novel "Kissing in America."