I Must Have Bobo! by Ellen Rosenthal and illustrated by Marc Rosenthal (Atheneum, January 2011) tells of a child’s connection with his an imaginary friend stuffed animal!
Young Willy wakes up only to find that his dear sock monkey Bobo is missing! He is found, much to Willy’s relief, as the boy cannot get through his day without Bobo. But as Willy and Bobo play, the sneaky cat repeatedly sneaks off with Bobo.
My four-year-old son and I loved this story: my son because he loved finding Earl stealing Bobo on each page, and myself because the simple illustrations show just how minimal illustrations can sometimes show more. The most important things are colored in the illustrations (Willy, Bobo, that silly Earl) and the rest is left in sketch, a way of imitating a young child’s life when really, only a few things matter all that much.
My son could relate to Willy’s dependence on Bobo. Bobo and Willy are great friends, much as, I suspect, Raisin is such great friends with his imaginary friend Goldbug, who is always by his side.
