#13 - Memoirs of an Invisible Friend by Matthew Dicks

Many thanks to my posse girl Mandi for sharing this sweet book with me.  I remember the two of us wandering the aisles of Target on my birthday last year when she picked it up.  I'm so glad that she did!

This is a novel that really captured the voice, imagination and innocence of a child.  Max is a young boy with autism and the internal dialogue that is used very closely echoes the behaviors and challenges that my friends who are raising children with autism relay back to me. Budo is the imaginary friend and the author builds an entire alternate world in which imaginary friends can talk to other imaginary friends.  Some of the things that Dicks says about the friends are so interesting - how most don't have eyebrows because kids never think about eyebrows when creating an imaginary friends, some only have heads, or distortions because they are at the will of this child who needs them - until they don't.

Although sweetly written I had a massive challenge with the fact that Budo has the ability to leave his child. I could suspend reality up until the point where, in the moment that Max needs him most, Budo is off wandering somewhere else. That sort of defeats the purpose of an imaginary friend in my opinion so it knocked a star off of my rating.

Goodreads rating 4 stars

Read date: March 7, 2014