This novel conveys a great message for students in upper elementary grades. Jaques thinks he is Fleur's twin brother, but he doesn't understand why he's never included or noticed. He doesn't realize that he's Fleur's imaginary friend. He doesn't realize this until he is finally noticed by someone, but that someone is also an imaginary friend of another girl. The novel then takes the reader on a journey with Jaques as he becomes the imaginary friend of other children as well. The ending of the novel will definitely take the reader by surprise. ( )

I'm of two minds on this book. It could be either a 3 or a 4 star book, depending, I think, on how one reacts to the first half.

I'm reading this for the first time as an adult, and I can well imagine that my own experiences and world viewpoint just don't "get" as much into the first half of the book as a younger audience might, and I nearly put the book down. Not sure why I continued, but after that half-way to two-thirds point I felt that what the book has been growing in the start was actually showing, and I enjoyed it a lot.

More objectively, the chapters are short, and the writing is witty and amusing and uses words that feel more complicated than I'm used to seeing in books of an age at which I would put this, but I won't consider that a fault. Small drawings decorate the pages here and there, and are fun to look at as well while reading, since they don't always take up an entire page.

Ultimately, I think this book could be read as a child and as an adult and the reader might get different reactions each time. ( )

An Endearing Tale of What it Means to Be

What a beautiful and exceedingly deep tale. What does it mean to be real? What can our imaginations free us to think and become? Who are we really? What is the essence of us?

This is certainly a story both young and old will enjoy... ( )

A great Junior fiction story about identity and belonging that asks some quite big questions (who am I if no one sees me?, what is my purpose?) in an amusing and engaging way. Will highly recommend to schools as a senior primary reader. A totally lovely story. ( )