The Fantastic Bureau of Imagination

by Brad Montague, Brad Montague (Illustrator), Kristi Montague (Illustrator)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

From the minds behind Circles All Around Us, Brad and Kristi Montague share a most unique, engaging and thought-provoking tale. The Fantastic Bureau of Imagination is a 4th-wall breaking, super-secretive, never-before-seen peek at the official agency that keeps the world's creativity flowing.

From New York Times bestselling author Brad Montague comes a top-secret, behind-the-scenes peek at the official agency that keeps the world's creativity flowing.

Every day, special figment agent Sparky delivers all the mail the FBI receives to the proper department, like the Office of the Unexplainable or the Department of Dreams. It's a big job, but Sparky keeps everything running smoothly . . . until disaster strikes when the Cave of Untold Stories overflows and threatens to topple the whole bureau. It turns out too many people have been holding in their big ideas, and now Sparky must recruit more agents to share their dreams, songs, and stories with the world.

And now, dear reader, will you join the effort and become a special agent before it's too late? The FBI is counting on you!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593323472
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	03/21/2023
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	48,642
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD810L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Brad Montague is creator of the hit web series Kid President, and Kid Congress, and author of Becoming Better Grownups, and the New York Times best sellers Kid President's Guide to Being Awesome and The Circles All Around Us. As an illustrator his work is regularly featured in Joanna Gaines's The Magnolia Journal. He lives in Tennessee with his wife and kids.

Kristi Montague is a designer, maker and jack-of-all-trades who owns and operates Montague Workshop, a creative studio, with her husband, Brad. From Kid President to books and birds and more, their studio aims to joyfully rebel against the world that is to create the world that could be. She's also a mama to two kids and lives in a 117-year-old house in rural Tennessee.

Editorial Reviews

01/02/2023

Before wishes, ideas, or creative solutions are shared in the human world, they’re delivered to and nurtured by figments at the “highly classified” Fantastic Bureau of Imagination, so secretive an operation that an image of its exterior has been comically excised from the pages of this high-concept picture book. Among the figments—a robust staff of winged creatures who process the ideas—is mail room worker Sparky, a cherubic introvert portrayed with light brown skin who, contrary to his employer’s mission, is fearful about sharing his own poetry with anyone but faithful dreampuppy Rascal. When humans forget that “ideas are not just meant for having and hiding, but for sharing and living and doing,” Sparky discovers that the Cave of Untold Stories is poised to explode—and take the entire bureau with it. Realizing that he’s part of the problem, he finds his courage and organizes the bureau staff to deliver poetic inspiration to humans everywhere: “We must all dare to DREAM,/but must also DO!” The Montagues (The Circles All Around Us) fill their worldbuilding fantasy, rendered in digitally colored pencil drawings, with gentle humor and rich details, including an elaborate schematic of the bureau’s many departments. Their pages should reward repeated looks while nudging readers to get out of their own way. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Amazon Best Book of the Year

★ "The colorful illustrations are delightful and invite the reader to explore. Pages with pictures of each of the figments and a map of the bureau departments are especially engaging. This book would be a great addition to any STEAM collection." —School Library Connection, starred review

"The Montagues fill their worldbuilding fantasy, rendered in digitally colored pencil drawings, with gentle humor and rich details, including an elaborate schematic of the bureau’s many departments. Their pages should reward repeated looks while nudging readers to get out of their own way." —Publishers Weekly

"The delightful, detailed illustrations provide a lot of interesting moments for a small audience to pore over." —Kirkus

"It is a profound message handled competently by Montague, and in narrowing the overwhelming scope of the story to a mail carrier with a penchant for poetry, the narrative emphasizes the power of a single voice . . . the muted color palette establishes an appealing dreamlike atmosphere that complements the story’s themes. Offer this book to any young person in need of a reminder about the importance of sharing their voice." —BCCB

From the Publisher

02/01/2023

K-Gr 3—This book's fanciful pretext, fabulous wordplay, and whimsical illustrations explain and encourage imagination and inventiveness in a most intriguing manner. Even the copyright page supports the concept of the existence of the Fantastic Bureau of Imagination, stating that the illustrations were created using real and imaginary textures and that some of the figment (character) names have been changed, but others have not. The convincing explanation that this was done to keep the readers on their toes may be humorous, but it also works as a challenge to read the text with intention and study the illustrations meticulously. The story is set in the unseen Fantastic Bureau of Imagination where business is conducted by curious creatures known as figments. Here, mail delivery figment Agent Sparky explains the bureau's mission to provide the world with all things creative from the fine arts to engineering innovations. The organization is running smoothly until the Cave of Untold Stories becomes so overpacked that an explosion seems eminent. There is an obvious solution to this impending disaster. Agent Sparky realizes that he must encourage others to share their creations and he has a new mission, recruiting additional agents for the Fantastic Bureau of Imagination. The book concludes with an invitation to create a badge, accept the mission to be creative, and invite others to join the challenge. VERDICT This would be a great motivational tale to share with young artists, aspiring writers, and gifted education classes. With its emphasis on creativity, self-expression, and production, this delightful book is perfect for libraries with makerspaces.—Lynne Stover

School Library Journal

2022-12-24
An imagination bureaucracy spreads magic.

Even before the title page, young readers are pulled into the fourth-wall–breaking world of this story. In a letter addressed to “Potential Special Agent, Human Division,” Agent Whim explains that this is a true story and that readers are invited to become “agents of imagination.” The narrative then follows a brown-skinned figment named Sparky (figments are “curious little creatures” working for the Bureau), who delivers mail around the agency along with Rascal the dreampuppy. Sparky is also a burgeoning writer of poetry but is too shy to share his doggerel with his community. Through meandering verbosity, the book finally comes to the point: The Cave of Untold Stories is exploding because humans have been hoarding their creativity. This finally forces Sparky to share his poems and is also meant to remind young artists that “ideas are not just meant for having and holding, but for sharing and living and doing.” It’s quite the heavy-handed message, and unfortunately Sparky’s own rhymes are weak. This would be exhausting to read aloud, but the delightful, detailed illustrations provide a lot of interesting moments for a small audience to pore over. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Fun to look at but overdone. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews