Egan, TIm. Dodsworth in New York. Houghton Mifflin, 2007.

This easy reader with four short chapters is the first in a series of easy readers about Dodsworth and his friend, the duck. The duck is never given a name, and I thought when I read some of the other Dodsworth books that Dodsworth was a mole. He still looks like a mole to me, but I am informed by reliable sources that Dodsworth is, indeed, a mouse. (I can still think of him as a mole. I prefer moles to mice.)

Character identity confusion aside, Dodsworth first encounters the duck in this book in the first chapter at Hodges’ Cafe. The duck is at first Hodges’ duck, and he’s a crazy, pancake-throwing, runaway duck who stows away in Dodsworth’s trunk. Dodsworth is on his way to New York City, from thence to embark on a journey to see the world. But Dodsworth can’t get rid of the crazy duck who becomes the key to adventure in a series of books: Dodsworth in Rome, Dodsworth in Paris, Dodsworth in London, and Dodsworth in Tokyo.

Dodsworth is the straight man in this world-traveling comedy duo. The duck is a rather bizarre comedian who gets lost a lot. I happen to think that easy readers are often perfect for reading aloud to precocious preschoolers, and that idea was confirmed when I loaned these Dodsworth books to my then-three year old grandson. He was smitten by the stories and by the humor. He got the jokes. And we had to read Dodsworth over and over and over again. He got a kendama (from Dodsworth in Tokyo) for his fourth birthday, along with his own set of Dodsworth books.

I read these books out of order, all the while mistaking Dodsworth the mouse for a mole. But I thoroughly enjoyed them anyway. I would recommend beginning with Dodsworth in New York because New York is the beginning of this zany journey. Yankee Stadium. The Brooklyn Bridge. The Statue of Liberty. Radio City Music Hall. And one crazy duck. What’s not to like?

Dodsworth in New York has been added to the updated edition of Picture Book Preschool for the week on United States–Travel.