Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Really, I doubt anyone’s shocked by my lack of a post on New Year’s Eve; I was playing games and eating junk and enjoying myself with family.  Weren’t you?  (And if you weren’t, I’m sincerely sorry.)  Today, however, I have come to the conclusion that I can no longer put off reviewing what has to be one of the most bizarre books I have ever encountered.

I checked Confessions of an Imaginary Friend:  A Memoir by Jacques Papier out of the library because I read a picture book by Michelle Cuevas and enjoyed it enough to at least try one of her intermediate titles.  It took me months to get around to reading it, because HEY, my to-read shelves, but I finally did–and wowsers.  This book is WEIRD.

The premise is existential but amusing; Jacques Papier discovers that he’s actually Fleur’s imaginary friend, instead of her twin brother, and goes into a full-blown identity crisis.  Creative, right?  It’s when you get to Fleur’s reaction to Jacques’ reaction, and then the meeting of Imaginaries Anonymous, and the Imaginary Reassignment Office with its keyword issues…honestly, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly WHEN Confessions crosses the line between creative and just plain strange, but it most definitely crosses it.

At a gallop.

I did, however, find it wildly entertaining.  I don’t think I’ll pass it on to either of my older girls, but that’s only because I can’t see it being either of their things (although to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure what kind of “thing” this book would be, exactly).  I think if you have a child with an imaginary friend, this might be quite a good read; if you have children who thrive on the bizarre, well, they’d probably really enjoy it as well.  My one complaint with it as a whole is that the ending felt different from the rest of the book; it had a Disney-ish feel to it, which cast a “Toy Story” shade over the rest of the book in retrospect.  I would have preferred something a little more edgy.  More…well, bizarre.

You’ll have to tell me what YOU think.