Phillip has a problem with his imaginary friend Brock. It’s quite an unusual problem, even for an imaginary friend. At the end of an exhausting trip to the Big Fair, Phillip falls asleep, and upon waking up at home, he realizes something has gone very wrong: Brock isn’t in the car! After frantically searching the house and not finding Brock, Phillip has a full-fledged meltdown, screaming, “We forgot Brock!”
Brock is a motorcycle-riding, mustachioed, brawny man who wears a sleeveless T-shirt emblazoned with a skull and crossbones and polka-dotted pants. Once he realizes he has lost Phillip, he searches the Big Fair for him, without any luck. Anne, the only other person who can see Brock, befriends him. Anne and her imaginary friend, purple Princess Sparkle Dust, try to cheer up Brock, which works for a little while. Meanwhile, plucky Phillip takes to his bike, scouring the neighborhood for his buddy.
In We Forgot Brock!, author-illustrator Carter Goodrich’s personality-plus watercolor illustrations charmingly capture Phillip and Brock’s emotions: gleeful, agitated, sad and happy. The imaginary friends are sketched in crayon like children’s drawings, making them stand out from the other characters and setting and mimicking the idea that only children believe in these pals—though a surprise at the book’s end makes readers wonder about the nature of imaginary playmates.
