Wednesday, February 01, 2006

This Little Piggy's Book of Manners


This is a book on manners, framed around the children's poem "This little piggy went to market. this little piggy ..." It talks about manners such as saying please and thank you, eating with your mouth closed, waiting your turn, speaking in appropriate tones amongst other manners. This would be for a pre-kindergarten to grade 1 book. The IRP's would be the social relationships of school.
Although the author, Kathryn Madeline Allen's intentions are good, I really cannot recommend this book. I found the illustrations by Nancy Wolff confusing- they are very bright and very cluttered. There are many characters in the book speaking, which makes the layout even more confusing. I also was offended because the "good pig", the pig with good manners was always the female pig, while the "bad pig" - the pig lacking manners was the male pig. At the end of the story the author refers to the readers in this manner: "At times little piggies will practice good manners (although sometimes they seem to forget them). But if they remember the piggies nearby might say they are pleased to have met them!" I am not sure if the author was saying that the readers are piggies. Not the most flattering opinion.
Does anyone know of any books that do a better job in reminding children about good manners? This could be for any age group.

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