Louie is unhappy when his friends call his dad the junkman. But his father has a secret: he knows it just takes imagination for that stuff to take a person right out of this world.

Louie gets to work building Imagination I . . . a spaceship fueled solely by imagination . . . and blasts off to an amazing adventure.

This book, from Caldecott Medal winner Ezra Jack Keats, is a Reading Rainbow selection that celebrates the young reader’s inventiveness with a fantastical tale of inspiration, friendship, and creativity. The target audience is first and second graders, ages five through nine. With its colorful, chimerical illustrations of planets and outer space, the touching tale dazzles both the eyes and the imagination. Young readers are sure to return to this story again and again.

Highly recommended. ( )

The way Louie stands by what he likes to do even though other kids make fun of him shows students that is okay to be different. Keats does a good job of showing that sometimes if you do what you like regardless of other's opinions the people may actually like what you like. ( )

This book is all about imagination! The children have trouble using their imagination. They call Louies pop the junkman because he collects things that most people would see as junk but pops shows Louie that this"junk" can be turned into anything if they use their imagination. So Louie and his pop build a spaceship called "Imagination I." all the kids laugh at him, but Louie doesn't listen to them he's focused on "goin' outta this world." While in "space" two other girls try to tag along but they're scared, and they're running out of imagination, and they need that to keep the ships flying! In the end, all the kids love the ships and use their imagination to go out of the world! This book teaches kids about using their imagination to have fun. And that with imagination anything is possible. ( )

This book is about a little boy who is made fun of because his parents own a junk yard. His dad suggest that he uses his imagination with some of the things in the yard. The little boy and some friends use their imagination to imagine that they're in a rocket ship and fly to outer space. When they get back all the kids want a turn on the spaceship, even the ones who teased the little boy. The pictures are incredibly detailed and take up whole pages. The illustrations are my favorite part of this book. ( )

Following the marriage of Barney and Louie's mother in the book, Louie's Search, the readers get to know these characters a little more. The kids at school often make fun of Barney because of his profession. They view as the "junkman". Barney tells Louie that it is not junk if you use your imagination. Together with the neighborhood children, they build a spaceship and fly out to space. Louie and his copilot, Susie, are surprised to see Ziggie and Ruthie in outer space. Ziggie and Ruthie cry out to them to be saved. Louie said only imagination can save them. Sure enough, the ordinary rocks turned into monsters and all the children were able to escape and land safely back down to Earth. In any tough situation, children use their imagination to "save" them. It is a common mechanism on dealing with problems that are too difficult. Also, when you change a negative thing such as "junk" into something positive such as "a spaceship", magical things happen. ( )