The Fantastic Bureau of Imagination

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.)