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Rocky Raccoon and his classmates at Holly Elementary School are excited for the day as they will be helping others. They have organized a cookie collection to bring bags of cookies to children who are sick and in the hospital. Rocky is particularly selected for his kindness and caring actions to lead this effort with organizing the cookie bags before he and his classmates go to Green Leaf Hospital to deliver them to the children. Once there, the children who are in the hospital are cheered by the kind gesture, and the school even receives a prize for their kindness.
The book is written in a conversational tone with many illustrative pictures of the animal classmates and Rocky Raccoon. Children will love all the colors and lovely images as they enjoy this positive story about helping others. The book not only describes the internal joy of helping and caring for others, but it also details the external validation, including hugs, praise, and even the plaque and award the school receives for their caring behavior. All of this positive reinforcement will speak to young children, who can understand some of these reasons as to why it is important to help others. The book also takes the time to illustrate how much it helps the people who receive the kindness by describing how happy the children in the hospital are about receiving the cookies. The approachable language and simple storyline have high appeal to young readers, who will also enjoy the many delightful animal characters. Rocky Raccoon’s happiness is catching, both to his classmates and especially to the readers who enjoy his caring story.
A common concern of parents and teachers is how to effectively convey compassion for others and a willingness to help those less fortunate to young children. While research shows that some of this drive is innate, it is difficult for young children to envision how to put these drives into practice. Books are an effective tool to teach children about how to care for others, why kindness matters, and what the potential outcomes of such actions could be. This picture book is an excellent tool for demonstrating how small actions, such as baking and collecting cookies, can make a big difference to others.
This book can also serve as inspiration for children to create their own caring project and would thus make a great classroom tool to start a discussion and plan for how a class could design a project like Holly Elementary School has done. Children could work with their teachers to come up with a simple plan and find a local group in their own community, such as children at the hospital, the elderly at a nursing home, or others to help. Such kindness is a true asset, whether enacted at the level of the school, classroom, or even family at home. Children have the power to become positive change-makers and helpers, and this book is one tool that can help to show them how. Rocky Raccoon’s story provides an approachable and easy-to-grasp example of how to help others and why kindness matters for young readers. Whether used as a classroom tool or as a fun book filled with animal characters, children can learn while enjoying this delightful story.