Hey, who's to say that animals don't have fantasy lives? In Imagine You and Me, Benson Shum (Anzu the Great Kaiju) has given the imaginary-friend picture book an ingenious, animal-centric twist.
Bear Randall (big, yellow fur, magenta specs) and human child Parker (small, brown skin, identical specs) are constant companions. One day at the beach, they overhear some bears playing. Randall is reluctant to invite the bears to join him and Parker--"What if they don't like me?"--but Parker prevails. All the bears enjoy playing together, but Randall notes "one problem.../ ...they all ignored Parker." When he tries to hype Parker to the bears, telling them about how much fun the two have had together, the bears still "only saw Randall." One bear even asks him, "Who are you talking to?" It may take a moment, but readers will grasp, maybe with a gasp of delight, that Parker--a human--is an imaginary friend; conversely, Randall the bear is real.
Imagine You and Me is about growing up and moving on. This is heady stuff with a powder-puff delivery system: Shum's digitally tweaked watercolor-and-ink art has a strictly cuddlesome cast. In a touch that will reward the sharp-eyed and encourage repeated readings, Shum uses blue and white imagery to represent things that Randall has come to accept aren't real: the "mermaids" he and Parker swam with, the "jungles" they explored together, and, eventually, when Randall realizes that he's confident enough to go it alone, Parker herself. --Nell Beram, freelance writer and YA author