Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (or Just Me)?: Adventures in Boyhood

Insecure actor Ellis recounts amusing anecdotes from his “behaviorally challenged” childhood in this briskly funny debut memoir-in-essays. After posting an ode to his mischievous imaginary friend, Mikey, on Instagram at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ellis received a flood of responses, confirming his suspicion that “the most creative people on the planet probably all had imaginary friends growing up.” Using Mikey’s unconditional encouragement as a jumping-off point, Ellis shares freewheeling stories from his early life in the 1980s and ’90s, which saw his family move regularly across the South and Southwest due to his father’s Air Force career. He covers family road trips, the time he threw his Magic Johnson Converse sneakers in a rain gutter to prove they could “float like Jordans,” and an afternoon when Mikey encouraged him to ask his third grade homeroom teacher to be his girlfriend. Throughout, Ellis underlines how Mikey’s confidence helped him navigate an “uncontrollable and often unsafe” world, lending depth to an otherwise riotously funny series of self-reflections. Even readers unfamiliar with Ellis’s acting work will be delighted. Agent: Albert Lee, UTA. (July)