Manners & Etiquette, Poetry - General & Miscellaneous, Poetry - Family Life

Don't Forget Your Etiquette!: The Essential Guide to Misbehavior

Name: Don't Forget Your Etiquette!: The Essential Guide to Misbehavior
Author: David Greenberg
ISBN: 9780374349905

by David Greenberg, Nadine Bernard Westcott

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Overview

If you're smart, you'll read my book

Of modern children's etiquette.

If you don't, I'm sad to say -

Your life will be pathetiquette.

Meet Miss Information, the world's foremost expert on bad behavior, as she offers upside-down advice about the etiquette of absolutely everything. In twenty impishly off-center poems she states her views on such important topics as bathing (with and without gerbils), kissing (Komodo dragons as well as teachers), and eating.

Exuberant illustrations full of hilarious antics add to the humor of this mischievous spoof on bad behavior. These sly poems offer a child-friendly way to discuss what good behavior really should be like and are sure to become every child's essential guide to - a rollicking good time!

A collection of humorous poems about the proper way to eat soup, visit a museum, and shake hands with the principal.

Synopsis

If you're smart, you'll read my book

Of modern children's etiquette.

If you don't, I'm sad to say -

Your life will be pathetiquette.

Children's Literature

Kids are given the lowdown of how to behave by Miss Information and many of the chapters are headed by quotes from serious treatises on etiquette. The twenty poems are all in good fun and kids will enjoy reading the book, perhaps one poem at a time. The twenty chapters include "The Etiquette of Museums" and "The Etiquette of Burping." In "The Etiquette of Shaking Hands," kids are advised, "When you shake hands with the mayor,/Talk about the weather,/Say Excuse me,' then bend down—/And tie his shoes together." Miss Information accepts that there are those kids who "do not getiquette." Her final words include a warning of sorts, indicating that when her young readers have kiddies of their own there, Miss Information will be ready to give them advice as well. Comic illustrations add a robust touch.

About the Author, David Greenberg

DAVID GREENBERG's picture books in verse include the popular Slugs. He lives in Portland, Oregon. NADINE BERNARD WESTCOTT has illustrated countless humorous picture books, including Hello, Snow! by Hope Vestergaard. She lives in Nantucket, Massachusetts.

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Editorials

From the Publisher

"Exuberant." —Kirkus Reviews "Clever. This book will tickle children's funny bones." —School Library Journal "Lively." —Booklist "Westcott's watercolor-and-ink illustrations add their own zany touches and a lot of energy." —The Horn Book

Children's Literature - Carolyn Mott Ford

Kids are given the lowdown of how to behave by Miss Information and many of the chapters are headed by quotes from serious treatises on etiquette. The twenty poems are all in good fun and kids will enjoy reading the book, perhaps one poem at a time. The twenty chapters include "The Etiquette of Museums" and "The Etiquette of Burping." In "The Etiquette of Shaking Hands," kids are advised, "When you shake hands with the mayor,/Talk about the weather,/Say ‘Excuse me,' then bend down—/And tie his shoes together." Miss Information accepts that there are those kids who "do not getiquette." Her final words include a warning of sorts, indicating that when her young readers have kiddies of their own there, Miss Information will be ready to give them advice as well. Comic illustrations add a robust touch.

School Library Journal

Gr 1-4-In 20 clever poems, Miss Information, a colorfully clothed character wearing blue-framed half-moon glasses, provides children with some new and unusual rules for "modern" manners. As she explains, "-the etiquette of olden days/Takes endless, boring study./Children need an etiquette/Far less fuddy-duddy." Framed with quotes from the likes of Emily Post and Miss Manners (appropriately credited in the back of the book), the selections merrily turn traditional advice upside down. Dressing properly? "Tuck your tie into your belt/And wear it as a tail./Put your undies on your head/And wear them as a veil." Table manners? "When drinking from a gravy boat/Hold it by the lip/And delicately sip from it,/Careful not to drip." There are offerings about babysitters, bathroom behavior, going to sleep (or not), disagreeing with adults, and, of course, belching. Westcott's pastel-hued watercolors are filled with verve, charm, and humor as mischievous youngsters interact with other kids, parents, and teachers. This book will tickle children's funny bones on its own, or it could be used as part of a discussion about appropriate social behavior.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

"So if you're smart, you'll read my book / Of modern children's etiquette. / If you don't, I'm sad to say- / Your life will be pathetiquette." So opines Miss Information, who goes on to offer chancy guidance for a range of situations, from the proper way to drink from a gravy boat to keeping the babysitter locked up, from shaking hands or kissing ("With emperors and empresses / You only kiss their cheeks. / With giant thrashing octopi / You only kiss their beaks") to "correct" behavior in museums and libraries. Most of the 20 rhymed entries are prefaced with a perspective-setting quotation from Emily Post or some like authority, and all are surrounded by Westcott's exuberant cartoon young folk happily acting out before a corps of befuddled grown-ups. Joining a spate of recent jocular takes on the topic (see, for instance, Alan Katz's Are You Quite Polite? Silly Dilly Manners Songs, 2006), this may make its case for civilized behavior indirectly, but even dimmer readers will "getiquette." (Picture book/poetry. 7-11)