Eeyore Gets By With a Little Help From His Friends... Eventually

The Veggie Tales video Are You My Neighbor? includes a Seussian retelling of the story of the Good Samaritan in which a pair of uppity asparaguses sing at length about the fact that they are too busy to help the cucumber who has fallen into a ditch and is begging for their assistance. It’s a moment that is both comical and sad; if they’d take a quick break from rhapsodizing about how much they have to do, they could solve this poor fellow’s predicament in a jiffy.

I thought of this scene as I read Just Be Nice… and Help a Friend!, a Winnie the Pooh Golden book written by Ann Braybrooks and illustrated by Darrell Baker. In this vibrantly colored paperback, vaguely shaped like Eeyore’s head, Eeyore has a vexing problem. The poor gray donkey, always inclined toward gloominess anyway, has once again lost his tail. He searches in every place that he can think of, but his tail is nowhere to be found. What’s a downhearted donkey to do?

Eeyore hits upon a solution. He will ask his friends to help him search. Surely with all of his plush pals on the case, or even just a couple of them, he will be able to locate that tail in no time! There’s just one problem. Everyone he consults is in the midst of a project or activity. Aside from Rabbit, whose cantankerous response to Eeyore is pretty typical, no one is flat-out rude to him. However, nobody thinks that Eeyore finding his tail is a particularly pressing concern, and they make that perfectly clear. All of the major Hundred-Acre Wood characters appear in this book except for Gopher and Christopher Robin, and all of them have some excuse keeping them from hurrying off to help Eeyore with his problem. It’s downright discouraging.

The characters in this book seem like themselves, albeit perhaps a bit more preoccupied than usual. Still, they are preoccupied with the sorts of things I would expect. Pooh is polishing off a jar of honey; Piglet has decided to rearrange his furniture; Tigger, Kanga and Roo are headed for a picnic. Their dismissive behavior is disheartening but more oblivious than mean-spirited. They’re just very wrapped up in their own activities and can’t think about anything else right at the moment. What’s more, they ultimately apologize and offer to help Eeyore search.

Of course, just because someone needs help does not mean that one is obligated to offer assistance. There’s also such a thing as taking advantage of a friend’s willingness to help, and that shouldn’t be encouraged. But all Braybrooks is doing here is showing how much a friend’s help is appreciated during a difficult time. The 24-page story is mostly dialogue-driven, with expressive illustrations capturing the personalities of Eeyore and his friends. While they may not always be as attentive as he would like, they will always rally to cheer up their gloomy pal; after all, that’s what friends are for.