Pudgy is more than a children's story. It is a modern parable about the courage to seek help and the grace to help others. The title character, Pudgy, is a beautiful little fish who is beached on the sands of a Bahamian island. His pleas for help are heard by different passers-by. Each has a different response to Pudgy's cry of desperation. As the story unfolds, young children will grow to love Pudgy. But just as importantly, the child in each of us will know from our own experience what it means to be "beached." As the author writes in his preface, "Pudgy is us. All of us can identify with being beached, in need of a helping hand. It is a powerful metaphor giving voice to our own inner pain." It is a story about being "beached," about needing each other, and ultimately about feeling safe. In his reflections on Pudgy, Dr. Allen writes: "In a society where only the strong are safe, no one is safe because no one is strong forever. We are part of the whole. We need each other. If we create a community where even the weakest among us is safe, then we are all safe." In the story of Pudgy we encounter the love that will never let us go and the face that never turns away.