Picture Book Spotlight: Please Say Please

Please Say Please: Penguin’s Guide to Manners by Margery Cuyler.

This charming picture book was one of last week’s library discoveries, and Beanie likes it so much she just about has it memorized. Penguin has invited a small menagerie of friends to dinner, and let’s just say their manners leave something to be desired. But they’re amiable creatures, willing to improve.

“When a hippo sits down for dinner, she should put her napkin on her head. HOW PRETTY! Is that right?”

This is a great approach to teaching manners—presenting extremely silly behaviors and asking if they’re appropriate. Beanie belly-laughed over the animals’ hijinks and delighted in shouting “Noooo!” every time the narrator asked, “Is that right?”

“No, that’s wrong,” the book continues. “When a hippo sits down for dinner, she should lay her napkin on her lap. THAT’S BETTER!”

Likewise, we learn that a lion shouldn’t say “Ew, I hate cauliflower” without a taste, a pig shouldn’t wipe his muddy hooves on the tablecloth, and a giraffe shouldn’t burp on purpose, no matter how tasty her serving of leaves.

The art is fun and lively, and the colorful text interjections (“Splat!” “Sticky-poo!”) were a fun opportunity for my emerging reader to practice sounding out.