It is a well-researched book that is not written for a general audience. I read it to gain insight into my own family dynamics and it worked. Not all children create imaginary companions, and imaginary companions come in all different styles and species. Sometimes they are part of a family, and sometimes they remain hidden. I was older than the majority of children covered in this story when I created mine, but even that bit of research was fascinating. Taylor also covers children who create imaginary worlds, rather than just imaginary companions and discussed the movie Heavenly Creatures as an example, extreme though it is. She also found research that shows tat while most children give up an imaginary companion, not all do and some adults either continue or remember with fondness their childhood imaginary companion.

While written for an audience of either a parent or a child/family therapist, the in-depth portions of the chapters were less engaging for me, hence the two-star rating. ( )

This book is fascinating. I brought it on vacation! ( )