SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: I Can Help in the Neighborhood
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.davidhydecostello.com/
CITY: Amherst
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 329
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born July 21, 1971, in NY.
EDUCATION:Attended Hartford Academy of Performing Arts; Bard College, B.A. (theatre and visual arts), 1994.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author and illustrator. Worked in set design for films and stage plays, including Broadway production Hello, Dolly!; has worked as a puppeteer. Exhibitions: Children’s Literature Institute, Simmons College, Boston, MA, 2013; Miniature Menagerie: Stories in the Making, Hope & Feathers Gallery, Amherst, MA, 2017.
AVOCATIONS:Hiking, cross-country skiing, playing ukelele.
WRITINGS
Author maintains a blog.
SIDELIGHTS
David Hyde Costello is an author and illustrator of children’s books. His penchant for performance was first in evidence in his studying acting in high school as well as college. Following his graduation from Bard College, he began work painting scenery for plays and films, including well-known titles like Amistad, Spider-Man, The Fighter, and Heat. However, the work felt more like labor than creative exploration, and after seven years of submitting to publishers, he was offered his first contract for a picture book, his debut, Here They Come! Costello brings a quirky humor to the picture books he creates. He recognizes the enjoyment young children have in seeing their favorite storybook characters come alive, and he punctuates his author visits with specially made puppets and songs from his books, which include I Can Help and Little Pig Joins the Band.
In Here They Come! Costello presents a playful Halloween story in which green ghouls and goblins gather in the forest for their annual Halloween party. The creatures enjoy telling frightening stories, each hoping to outdo the others by ending his or her story with the biggest scare. These ghoul and goblin storytellers get the biggest scare, however, when a group of human trick-or-treaters stumble upon the gathering, startling the green creatures and sending them fleeing into the night. In her review of Here They Come! for School Library Journal, Mary Hazelton praised Costello’s “charming rhyming text and enchanting illustrations,” concluding that young “readers will be grabbed, teased, and tickled by this appealing tale.” As a Publishers Weekly critic commented, the author/illustrator “demonstrates good comic timing and his sympathetic main character exudes holiday excitement.” “The rhyming text and too-cute-to-be-scary monsters make this worth a look” by those seeking “non-threatening Halloween tales,” concluded a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews.
In his picture book I Can Help, Costello exposes the cooperative traits shared by members of an interspecies community. After a hapless duckling finds that he has strayed too far from home, a friendly primate points the creature in the right direction. The monkey is soon helped by another animal, and this continues as the pages turn in Costello’s light-hearted tale. “Animated art tells a lot of the story,” noted Kitty Flynn in a Horn Book review, while School Library Journal critic Martha Simpson praised I Can Help as an “endearing story of friendship.”
Little Pig Joins the Band presents early readers with a familiar dilemma: youngest piglet Jacob prefers to be called by a more stately name and feels left out during a visit to his grandparents. There Jacob’s porcine siblings discover a trove of marching-band uniforms and instruments, but all are too large for Little Pig. “Humor lifts the story from a simple tale of woe to transcendence,” reported a writer for Kirkus Reviews, and a Publishers Weekly critic contended that, while the pig’s plight is standard, the mix of “understated text, sly watercolors, and” a confident, ultimately triumphant Jacob “make the premise feel fresh and funny.” School Library Journal contributor Maryann H. Owen also enjoyed Little Pig Joins the Band, noting that Costello’s “ink and watercolor illustrations … will hold readers’ attention as they adeptly convey the piglet’s emotional journey.”
Costello’s affable porcine protagonist returns in Little Pig Saves the Ship. This time his siblings leave him behind when they head off to sailing camp, leaving him at home tying knots. His spirits are buoyed when his grandfathers bring him a hand-carved toy boat, which he plays with all week, but his fulfillment is in jeopardy when the boat heads out of control downstream—and perhaps only a well-tied knot can save the day.
Writing in BookPage, Jill Lorenzini appreciated the “colorful, kid-friendly and expressive” paintings, done in ink and watercolors, and noted that “the relaxing vibe of a day spent wading in a stream is perfect for a summer-themed storytime.” Applauding Little Pig Saves the Ship ‘s substantial nod to diversity, Horn Book‘s Martha V. Parravano affirmed that “the open-to-interpretation presentation of the grandfathers in the illustrations (it’s implied that Grandpa and Poppy are a couple, but not overtly stated) is just right.” A Kirkus Reviews writer called the artwork “inviting” and “well-paced,” and Kaitlin Malixi, in School Library Journal, praised the “energy and movement” of the occasional paneled page layouts. Malixi concluded, “Wholesome and cute, this fun new adventure [is] … a great choice.”
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I Can Help in the Neighborhood continues the “I Can Help” series showing children they can perform acts of kindness and pass it along to others. In the city park, little Duck has wandered out of the fountain and become lost in the tall grass. Rabbit says, “I can help” and hops over the grass to find Duck and return him to his family. But now Rabbit is caught in kite strings. Pigeon flies over saying, “I can help” and frees Rabbit. Now Pidgeon is being rained on and needs shelter. Raccoon says, “I can help” and tips over a recycling bin. Then Rat helps Raccoon by giving him an apple taken out of a garbage can. The offers of assistance pass through various animals in the neighborhood until Duck is lost again and Squirrel comes to help. The next book in the series, I Can Help on the Farm finds little Duck lost again, and various animals, such as a dog, chickens, sheep, and goats, lending a hand to help each other. Young readers learn that good friends are there to lend a hand.
Writing in School Library Journal, Jennifer Costa remarked that children will enjoy the repeated call-and-response of “Uh-oh!” and “I can help!” Costa added that the book, with bold, clear illustrations of common animals, is a “simple but winning story of cooperation, kindness, and the importance of being willing to lend a paw.” “Whether depicting a verdant park or moonlit city scenes, Costello’s artwork sets a soothing tone,” noted a Kirkus Reviews contributor who added that the book is “Infectiously charming” and demonstrates how all the animals are interconnected.
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, January 1, 2010, Kay Weisman, review of I Can Help, p. 96; May 15, 2011, Ilene Cooper, review of Little Pig Joins the Band, p. 50; April 1, 2015, Carolyn Phelan, review of A Crow of His Own, p. 82; September 1, 2024, review of I Can Help in the Neighborhood.
BookPage, May, 2017, Jill Lorenzini, review of Little Pig Saves the Ship, p. 30.
Horn Book, May-June, 2010, Kitty Flynn, review of I Can Help, p. 64; September-October, 2011, Kitty Flynn, review of Little Pig Joins the Band, p. 64; March-April, 2015, review of A Crow of His Own, p. 78; July-August, 2017, Martha V. Parravano, review of Little Pig Saves the Ship, p. 101.
Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2004, review of Here They Come!, p. 958; May 15, 2011, review of Little Pig Joins the Band; February 15, 2015, review of A Crow of His Own; March 15, 2017, review of Little Pig Saves the Ship.
Publishers Weekly, October 11, 2004, review of Here They Come!, p. 78; May 9, 2011, review of Little Pig Joins the Band, p. 50.
School Library Journal, November, 2004, Mary Hazelton, review of Here They Come!, p. 94; January, 2010, Martha Simpson, review of I Can Help, p. 70; July, 2011, Maryann H. Owen, review of Little Pig Joins the Band, p. 63; May, 2017, Kaitlin Malixi, review of Little Pig Saves the Ship, p. 59.
ONLINE
Amherst Bulletin Online, http://www.amherstbulletin.com/ (April 1, 2017), Steve Pfarrer, “Illustrator and Writer David Hyde Costello Paints Films—and More—to Life.”
David Hyde Costello Website, http://www.davidhydecostello.com (April 11, 2018).
Happy Birthday Author, http://www.happybirthdayauthor.com/ (July 28, 2017), “Happy Birthday, David Hyde Costello—July 21.”
Hope & Feathers Website, https://hopeandfeathersframing.com/ (April 11, 2018), “Miniature Menagerie: Stories in the Making—Paintings by David Hyde Costello.”
School Library Journal, https://www.slj.com/ (October 2024), Jennifer Costa, review of I Can Help in the Neighborhood.
Simmons College Website, http://www.simmons.edu/ (July 13, 2017), “Illustrator David Hyde Costello and Lecturer Lauren Rizzuto Share Expectations of This Summer’s Institute.”*
David Hyde Costello is a picture book author and illustrator. His work includes Little Pig Saves the Ship and the I Can Help series. David also designs and creates the puppets which feature in his online videos and films such as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: A Shadow Puppet Film. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Costello, David Hyde I CAN HELP IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Children's None) $18.99 10, 29 ISBN: 9780374391331
In this follow-up to Costello'sI Can Help (2010), a duckling receives assistance, which results in a chain of good deeds.
Peeking out from tall grass, the little duck laments, "Uh-oh. I'm lost." A rabbit bounds by and cheerily offers to help. The rabbit jumps high and spots the duckling's family. They are all reunited. When the perspective zooms out, readers can see that the animals are in a park. But now the rabbit, tangled in a kite string, needs help. A passing pigeon flaps down and says, "I can help." A familiar pattern emerges as the book demonstrates how all the animals are interconnected. The setting changes as the pigeon flies out of the park and into an urban environment. In need of shelter, the pigeon laments, "I need cover." A raccoon steps in to lend a paw; later, a rat and a squirrel join the fray. Day turns to night and back to morning, and the same little duckling helps the squirrel but gets lost again (someone get that duck a compass!). The repeating refrain of "I can help" will reassure readers and is simple enough to be triumphantly parroted by the youngest of storytime audiences. Whether depicting a verdant park or moonlit city scenes, Costello's artwork sets a soothing tone. Human characters are diverse.
Infectiously charming.(Picture book. 2-5)
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"Costello, David Hyde: I CAN HELP IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A806452870/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1a6b1152. Accessed 24 Feb. 2025.
I Can Help in the Neighborhood
by David Hyde Costello (text) & illus. by David Hyde ¬Costello
Farrar. (I Can Help.). Oct. 2024. 32p. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9780374391331.
Reviewed by Jennifer Costa , Oct 01, 2024
October 2024, Jennifer Costa, review of .
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.
VERDICT A simple but winning story of cooperation, kindness, and the importance of being willing to lend a paw.