Item - Little Duck Finds a Friend

Young duck has moved to a new home. He can either go to the park to find a friend to play with or stay home and play. Some of the half pages show the differences between the preferences and capabilities of two individuals. They can still be friends despite their differences, and can share what they have in common.

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No gamebook series I've read is better than Your First Adventure at imparting simple, lasting truths, and Little Duck Finds a Friend is a vintage example. Leaving the familiar for a brand-new scenario is daunting, as you feel at the start of this book in your role as a young duck who just moved to a new house. You don't know the other young animals in the neighborhood; will they like you? Will any of them extend you their friendship? You're nervous as you sit in the yard outside your new home, but you'd rather do something than sit alone. Should you look for a playmate, or play with your unpacked toys inside the house?

If you visit the park, you meet a kitten at the pool's edge. Perfect! Is Kitten interested in joining you for a swim? No...kittens don't take to water as a duck does. Hey, maybe you'd like to swing on the monkey bars with Kitten! But...no. Ducks aren't acrobatic like kittens. Do you and Kitten have any common interests to support a friendship? You'll find something, provided you don't give up. After you earn one friend in the neighborhood, you'll have an in with everybody Kitten is already friends with.

Maybe you aren't so forward as to go seek friends in an unfamiliar place, and would prefer playing at home. While you construct a castle out of blocks, the front doorbell rings...but when you answer it, no one is there. A tap comes at the window while you're drawing a picture with crayons, but when you open it, all you see is the front lawn. Tugging your train around the house by a string, a rapping on the back door grabs your attention, and this time you find a playmate you had just barely missed meeting all morning. Amusing yourself at home was fun, but how much better is fun with a friend? Being in a new neighborhood was scary at first, but you have ample reason for optimism.

Going somewhere new can be hard. You have no idea how you'll fit in or whether there's anyone you'll get along with. But making friends isn't so much about finding others who share your exact interests; it's better to focus on the person, and show you want to get to know them regardless how much you have in common. Satisfaction comes more from personal chemistry than what you do together; if you learn to have fun just being in each other's company, you'll create shared interests. And once you make a friend, they are often a doorway to other friendships you were a single common link away from. Dennis Hockerman's illustrations for Little Duck Finds a Friend are as homey and nostalgic as in Little Pig's Birthday, and I adore this book's feeling of reassurance that even when everything around you has changed, friendship may be no farther away than a jaunt to the park.

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