Overview
Do your words and actions help or hurt? In this humorous guide to good behavior, Ollie Octopus, Bucky Beaver, and their friends help point the way to good behavior. For example, when Howie Hogg is finished playing with straws, sticks and bricks at Grandma's house, he should: (a) Tweeze his snout hairs. (b) Clean up his mess. (c) Tell Grandma she lives in a pigsty. The correct answer to each behavior problem is hidden in the pictures. With its witty questions, hilarious artwork and hidden visual surprises, this companion book to It's a Spoon, Not a Shovel is a fun way to learn appropriate behavior. "Snappy, alliterative text makes for an exuberant read-aloud...This book brims with the sort of solid values every child should learn." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
Ollie Octopus, Bucky Beaver, Howie Hogg, and other animal characters encounter moral dilemmas involving such virtues as honesty, thoughtfulness, and trustworthiness. The reader is invited to select the appropriate behavior from a series of choices.
Synopsis
Bucky Beaver has been happily chiseling the table legs with his new front teeth. When Mother brings dinner in, she is horrified! Who did this? Mother demands. What should Bucky do: (a) Tell Mom he thinks they have termites? (b) Run off to dam-building class? (c) Or say.I did it. I'm sorry. This hilarious quiz book points the way to good behavior by presenting a series of animals facing moral dilemmas. The answer to each question is concealed within the colorful artwork throughout and listed in the key at the back of the book. In addition, the illustrations contain cleverly hidden pictures of a variety of creatures. Children will laugh at these silly scenarios-as they're reminded that values such as honesty, dependability, and consideration for others provide the answer to every situation. An irresistible book for teaching manners, raved Letitia Baldrige about It's a Spoon, Not a Shovel (Dial). The Buehners' most recent book, Fanny's Dream, is a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner. Caralyn and Mark Buehner live in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Publishers Weekly
In this clever companion picture book to their hilarious etiquette guide, It's a Spoon, Not a Shovel, the Buehners use wit and very punny humor to tackle the issue of ethics for children. The multiple-choice format here translates into more of a spirited guessing game than a classroom-style quiz. On each spread one or more animal characters faces an ethical dilemma (should Ima Scalebody the fish cheat on her test? Should Howie Hogg clean up the toys he took out?). Readers are encouraged to assess the situation and choose a suitable (and usually obvious) answer from three selections. As one of the many visual bonuses in this volume, the letter of the correct response is hidden somewhere in Mark Buehner's illustration. The artist's passion for visual surprise doesn't end there: he has also concealed bumblebees, cats, rabbits and dinosaurs, among other things, in each of his lush and expressive oil-and-acrylic paintings. From a school of fish in an underwater classroom to rats in a cafeteria, the artist tweaks familiar settings by populating them with his own gently anthropomorphic animal kingdom. Caralyn Buehner's snappy, aliterative text makes for an exuberant read-aloud, perfect for sharing between parent and child. Grown-ups will guffaw over such aptly named critters as the flies Buzzer and Annoya McFly, and rats Diseasa and Fungusto. But best of all, this book brims with the sort of solid values every child should learn: never lie, follow the rules, obey your parents and think of others.