Synopsis
What happens when your imaginary friend becomes your imaginary enemy?
New York Times bestselling author Brandon Mull and No.1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Brandon Dorman team up in this new children's picture book that explores the meaning of friendship and imagination.
Like many kids his age, Chad has an imaginary friend. His friend was Pingo. The two would fight ninjas, brew magical potions, and float in zero gravity. Each day was a fun-filled adventure, until Chad decided he was too old to have an imaginary friend.
But Pingo wasn't ready to leave Chad alone, and started tormenting him and causing all kinds of mischief. Can this once inseparable duo ever be friends again?
Paired with charming illustrations, Pingo is a delightful read-out-loud picture book for children ages 3 and up.
Publishers Weekly
Mull's (the Fablehaven series) mischievous story introduces a boy named Chad with a furry, goblinlike imaginary friend, Pingo, who sports polka-dotted boxers and a striped scarf. For a time, Pingo and Chad happily battle ninjas and concoct magical potions, but in adolescence Chad decides it's time to leave his pal behind, claiming, “If I stop believing in you, you'll disappear!” Not so. Undaunted, Pingo becomes Chad's “imaginary enemy,” leading nighttime “pirate raids” and filling his backpack with maple syrup and peanut butter while the teen flirts with a girl. As a lonely elderly man, Chad relents and tells a delighted Pingo that he wants to be friends again, leading to another round of adventures (the final illustration, which echoes the book's first, shows the duo playing in a tent fashioned from a blanket as a doctor pushes a wheelchair past Chad's room). The message about hanging onto the magic of childhood comes through clearly (indeed, Pingo even bears a strong resemblance to Chad), and Dorman's brassy, exaggerated cartoon art should have kids giggling over Pingo's antics. Ages 3–up. (Aug.)