511 pages
English language
Published March 18, 2013 by Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning.
Budo is lucky as imaginary friends go. He's been alive for more than five years, which is positively ancient in the world of imaginary friends. But Budo feels his age, and thinks about the day when eight-year-old Max Delaney will stop believing in him. Some say Max has Asperger's Syndrome, but most just say he's "on the spectrum." None of this matters to Budo, who loves Max and is charged with protecting him from the class bully, from awkward situations in the cafeteria, and even in the bathroom stalls. But he can't protect Max from Mrs. Patterson, the woman who works with Max in the Learning Center and who believes that she alone is qualified to care for this young boy. When Mrs. Patterson does the unthinkable and kidnaps Max, it is up to Budo and a team of imaginary friends to save him -- and Budo must ultimately decide …
Budo is lucky as imaginary friends go. He's been alive for more than five years, which is positively ancient in the world of imaginary friends. But Budo feels his age, and thinks about the day when eight-year-old Max Delaney will stop believing in him. Some say Max has Asperger's Syndrome, but most just say he's "on the spectrum." None of this matters to Budo, who loves Max and is charged with protecting him from the class bully, from awkward situations in the cafeteria, and even in the bathroom stalls. But he can't protect Max from Mrs. Patterson, the woman who works with Max in the Learning Center and who believes that she alone is qualified to care for this young boy. When Mrs. Patterson does the unthinkable and kidnaps Max, it is up to Budo and a team of imaginary friends to save him -- and Budo must ultimately decide which is more important: Max's happiness or Budo's very existence.
A great story.
I guess I would recommend this to anyone who has young children, Grandchildren or who have ever been a child themselves.
The narrator of the story is Budo, the imaginary friend of a young apparently autistic boy named Max. As an invisible friend, he can only be seen and heard by Max, and by other invisible friends; so when Max gets in some trouble and Budo wants to help, there are some obvious challenges.
It's a very unusual and interesting perspective, and an interesting way to tell the story. Ultimately though I found the writing style a bit annoying since the author is trying to make Budo sound like a young child, so he speaks only in very short, simple sentences. A whole book of this is a bit hard to handle.
The book was a great story. At times, the profanity seemed unnecessary.
