Being a Pig Is Nice: A Child's-Eye View of Manners

Being a Pig Is Nice: A Child’s-Eye View of Manners by Sally Lloyd-Jones, illustrated by Dan Krall 2009

Animals don’t have to worry about being polite. They are practically encouraged to misbehave. The young girl in this story guides us through animal habitats so we can see how young creatures are encouraged to behave by their parents. The differences between us and them is comical and endearing.

“When you are an elephant it is polite to splash. Not splashing is Atrocious, Disgraceful Conduct. But flies and all their relations come to live on you when you’re an elephant and that’s not nice.”

This young girl realizes the negatives of being an animal, and the positives of appropriate manners, while using her imagination and making us laugh in the process. The illustrations are bright and dramatic and perfectly match the humor of the text.

Appropriate for ages 4-8

Sally Lloyd-Jones on Amazon

Bradley McGogg, the Very Fine Frog

Bradley McGogg, the Very Fine Frog by Tim Beiser, illustrated by Rachel Berman 2009

Bradley awakens one morning, in his home in the bog, to find that his cupboards are bare. He decides to ask his neighbors for a bite to eat, and sets out gleefully. He soon discovers that all animals do not eat alike. Why would any creature want to eat something as disgusting as cheese, or as sticky as honey? He politely refuses, and arrives home to find his favorite food creeping and crawling all over the place.

This book illustrates, in a fun and whimsical way, that not all creatures (or humans for that matter) have the same customs or habits. Differences aren’t bad, and they certainly make the world around us a more interesting place.

Appropriate for ages 2-6

The House Takes a Vacation

The House Takes a Vacation by Jacqueline Davies, illustrated by Lee White 2007

Why wouldn’t the house take a vacation at the same time as the Peterson family? The chimney grudgingly agrees they should travel to the sea after much prodding from the sunporch, the bedroom windows, and the roof. The basement stays behind because he “refused to rise to the occasion.”

The expressions of the different parts of the house are amusing, and there is a plethora of silly puns. The house experiences the Dance of the Sunlight on the ocean, and even passes dangerously close to the Peterson’s sunbathing on the beach. The Peterson’s arrive home right after the house, and find it looking quite bedraggled; decorated with seaweed, and an octopus. They thought they were the only ones who took a vacation, but we know better.

Appropriate for ages 4-8