The story was originally a metaphor for the creative process Beekle was originally drawn with one eye. Santat's goal was to explore imaginary friends in a different way from others by taking the point of view of the imaginary friend. Then the imagination becomes a reality when you finally hold your child in your arms for the first time, and that’s when your imaginary friend gets his name, Beekle.' The name Beekle came from his son's first word, an attempt to say bicycle. He has stated that for him personally, the book is 'a metaphor about the birth of my son', as 'There’s the initial anxiety of being a first-time father realizing that there is this inevitable destiny of meeting this new person but knowing you’ll love them unconditionally without having ever met.

One of 13 published books Santat illustrated in 2014, he wrote the book as a gift to his son, who also inspired the story. The book is told exclusively from Beekle's point of view. It is then that he meets Alice and the two become friends. After a day exploring the world and being scared, Beekle climbs a tree and cries. Plot īeekle is an imaginary friend who decides to leave the island where these friends wait to be called into being by a child. This is the third book Santat has written, following The Guild of Geniuses (2004) and Sidekicks (2011), and his second picture book. The book won the 2015 Caldecott Award and tells the story of an imaginary friend in search of a child. The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend is a 2014 picture book by Dan Santat.

The Adventures of Beekle by Dan Santat