The Imaginary by A.F. Harrold

What happens to imaginary friends when children lose their imagination? Unfortunately, Rudger is about to find out, but it's not just a case his "real" friend Emily growing up - there are evil things afoot for imaginaries.

This juvenile novel was illustrated by the amazingly talented Emily Gravett, whose moody art allows just the right amount of menace. It's a great book for kids just old enough to be abandoning their own imaginary friends, but still young enough to believe in the fantastical.

Personally, I adored the idea that abandoned imaginaries go to the library to hang out until they get a new assignment - it really is a place MADE of imagination, as one character explains to Rudger.

The sunflower sword

by Mark Sperring

Imagination is a wonderful thing.  The cover of this book shows a dragon in the background gazing upon a child who wears a colander upon his head.  The two are ensconced in a field of sunflowers. 
The child dreams of one day becoming a knight who will fend off ferocious dragons and protect the land.  His mother tells him no.  If he really needs something to "whoosh and swoosh in the air" a sunflower will do.
Of course, some imagination is required to believe in a land filled with dragons: even more to believe in the power of a friendly gesture. However, it was the imaginative way the young knight put the sunflower to work that had me retelling the story just hours after reading it.  This could be a great reader's theater story, particularly with real sunflowers used as props. 

Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer

I thought this book might be interesting based on my hobby as a quilter, but I've found much more than artistic stimulation to ponder; my initial mistake was thinking about creativity as confined to a leisure activity, when in fact creativity is the key to innovation and problem-solving in all parts of life.

Why does Apple headquarters only have one restroom? How did a sandpaper salesman invent the now-ubiquitous roll of masking tape? How do small changes in the presentation of a problem effect the perspectives we use in solving it?

This book is EXTREMELY interesting - and not at all boring. Lively writing and stellar examples illustrate a complex subject, and I often found myself putting the book aside at chapter ends to contemplate useful applications for the things I'd just read. Highly recommended!

Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan

Tan is an incredible artist with a strong sense of the absurd. His 2007 book, The Arrival, was a wordless story about immigration. This one is highly illustrated short stories about everyday life.

Each tale stands alone, but together they give a bigger picture of the world. All are a little strange, kind of dream-like, and many of the characters don't seem to be human (more monsters and aliens, from the pictures) although they're extremely human in nature. Tan's illustrations are low-contrast in color, and extremely detailed in illustration: the book's endpapers can be a 20-minute exploration in themselves.

This is the kind of book that makes me feel like maybe I'm not smart enough. There's a lot going on here, and maybe I'm not getting it all. But that's not a bad thing - it's actually an excellent book I'd recommend highly. And definitely worth a read-along so you can discuss what's really happening and how you see it.