Santat, D. (2014) The adventures of Beekle: the unimaginary friend. Little, Brown and Company: New York.

2015 Randolph Caldecott Medal Winner

He was born on an island and waits for his child.  He waits and waits until he is the last one.  He gets tired of waiting and decides to go find his friend.  He journeys to a strange place and still cannot find his friend.  He finally finds a friend and they are perfect for each other.  Together they do the unimaginable.  This book won awards for the illustrations.  Great use of lines, colors and shapes to help tell the story.  It makes me think of the cartoon that my son used to watch Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

Lesson plan idea -

Have students identify the character, setting and key events in the story.  Have them illustrate on a folded piece of paper with six squares.  Two for characters, two for the setting and two for events.

You could also have students discuss the word courage as it is used in the story while he is on his journey.

Kindergarten TEKS  K6A, K8B

6)  Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Theme and Genre. Students analyze, make inferences and draw conclusions about theme and genre in different cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding. Students are expected to:

(A)  identify elements of a story including setting, character, and key events;

(8)  Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Fiction. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to:

(B)  describe characters in a story and the reasons for their actions.