Pal Around With Me

No matter your age, the richness friends bring to life is a sweet treat we crave—human beings and bee-beings alike. Anytime is a good time to celebrate the special ones we joy in calling our co-hearts, so “Pal Around with Me” as we crack open a trio of March Picks with a focus on friendship.

Clover knows, and you do too, there’s no blessing bigger than a buddy, friend or bestie, no matter what you call them, they deliver 24-7. Give them a hive-five—it will mean a lot!

Page On! Enjoy!

The Community Literacy Foundation, in partnership with Neighborhood Reads, and with support from its sponsors, provides these books at no cost to 34 schools in Washington, Union, Pacific, St. Clair and surrounding communities and to the Washington Public Library. Learn more at CommunityLiteracyFoundation.org.

Youngest Read

When Hazel the Fox finds an egg in the woods, she tries to find a nest the egg might have fallen from. But there’s none anywhere. Hazel can’t “believe her luck,” thinking how yummy the egg will be for breakfast. Imagine Hazel’s shock when the egg suddenly cracks open and a chick pops out.

“Hazel and Herbert” is certain to charm the peeps out of chicks and kids, a delightful story of how a friendship can be tested by too much together time, written and illustrated by Alexandra Thompson, whose art blossoms with the bounty of springtime.

The bluebird, that Hazel names Herbert, is a pal like none other. Herbert is cheerful and spunky, but the songster sticks to Hazel “like jam on toast,” making for a sticky situation. In the garden, in the bathtub, even in bed, Herbert horns in on Hazel’s private space. When the bluebird ruins a painting Hazel’s been working on, it’s the last Picasso—Hazel yells, “I wish you would just go away!”

When that wish comes true, Hazel panics, realizing she misses Herbert and going on a frantic hunt to bring her friend home. In the end, Hazel learns important lessons about minding her words, losing her temper and asking for forgiveness.

Buy the book at Neighborhood Reads

Middle Read

Sometimes strangers become friends, through acts of mercy, each morsel of kindness earmarked to help another. That’s how it is for a group of woodsy characters in “The Sweater: A Story of Community,” by Larissa Theule.

When Holly the raccoon heads out for a hike in the woods, her plans suddenly change when she comes across a little bird. “It was plain to see he’d been through some things.”

The happenstance affects Holly, whose empathy rises like the morning sun. She stashes her hiking stick and goes by the homes of her forest friends—each bunny, moose, beaver, squirrel, crow giving what they can to create a gift to help the dejected bird feel warm and welcomed.

Overnight winter bares its sharp teeth, and the wood swirls with wind and snow. The bird’s new home is drafty and weak, but not for long, thanks to the forest creatures that shore up the house against the elements. Touched and grateful, the little bird gives back in a voice wholly its own.

“The Sweater” is bound to make readers feel cozy all over with its kind story, the forest coming to life in intricate detail compliments of Teagan White, an illustrator wholly at home in nature.

Buy the book at Neighborhood Reads

Oldest Read

They say “birds of a feather flock together.” That isn’t the case for a lost-dog-found, and an orphaned Cheetah grieving its mother in “The Unlikely Tale of Chase & Finnegan,” by Jasmine Warga.

While Chase the Cheetah and Finnegan the Pup couldn’t be more different, they grow dependent on each other when circumstances force them to interact.

The two meet after Finnegan, a canine with a secret that dogs him, flees his house and is attacked by an animal that bites the dog’s ear. Alone, scared, and injured, Finnegan is found by Ryan, a caring man who takes him to the vet and then home, where he lives with Basma, a goodhearted soul who works at the zoo caring for cheetahs and planning educational programs that focus on the unique qualities of the cheetah, the fastest animal on earth.

In alternating chapters, Chase and Finnegan narrate stories that begin on a sad note but improve as the cheetah and pup grow to trust one another and begin anew in ways they couldn’t have foreseen.

Entertainment and education coincide in this honey of a book, an author’s note offering information on cheetah conservation and resources on adopting shelter dogs.

Buy the book at Neighborhood Reads

Written by Chris Stuckenschneider.

Copyright 2026, Community Literacy Foundation.