I Can Help in the Neighborhood

Toddler-PreS–A baby duck wanders out of the fountain in the park and gets lost. Luckily, a friendly rabbit hops in to help, and the family is quickly reunited. This starts a chain of kindness and assistance that cycles through the entire neighborhood. The combination of bold, clear illustrations of familiar animals and the repeated call-and-response of “Uh-oh!” and “I can help!” will make this a good title for story hours with young children as well as a sweet choice for beginning readers. Picture books that feature a young animal in distress with kindly neighbors offering to assist are commonly set in the wild, as in Nancy Tafuri’s Have You Seen My Duckling? Adults may be amused (or disconcerted) by the players in this presumably urban neighborhood: a raccoon helps a pigeon by tipping over the recycling bin, then a rat helps the raccoon by rolling an out-of-reach apple (from the garbage) through the bars of a fence, and more.