Do Unto Otters: A Book About Manners »

LAURIE KELLER is the author and illustrator of Grandpa Gazillion's Number Yard; Open Wide: Tooth School Inside; Arnie, the Doughnut; and The Scrambled States of America. She has also illustrated Toys! and Fooled You! She lives in North Muskegon, Michigan.

Mr. Rabbit's new neighbors are Otters. OTTERS! But he doesn't know anything about Otters. Will they get along? Will they be friends? Just treat otters the same way you'd like them to treat you, advises wise Mr. Owl. And so begins Mr. Rabbit's reflection on good manners.

In her smart, quirky style Laurie Keller highlights how to be a good friend and neighbor--just follow the Golden Rule!

A Junior Library Guild Selection

Publishers Weekly

Keller's (The Scrambled States of America) latest offers lessons in the social graces, featuring Mr. Rabbit and his whiskery new neighbors, the otters. "I don't know anything about otters," the pink-eyed, pink-nosed protagonist agonizes. "What if we don't get along?" At this, a bookish owl pops in from the margin with an apt take on the Golden Rule: "Do unto otters as you would have otters do unto you." Hmmm...," muses Mr. Rabbit, "How would I like otters to treat me?" When he opines, "I'd like otters to be polite," a gray otter in polka-dot shorts demonstrates how to say "please" in five languages (counting Pig Latin), then does the same for "thank you" and the indispensable "excuse me." Later, the smiling otters "co-otter-ate" and help friends move a heavy log. Even disagreements can be managed. Keller loads her acrylic-on-paper images with comical asides and tangential conversations, and goggle eyes, rubbery smiles and rounded teeth suggest her cast's goofball personalities; no mistaking them for Little Lord Fauntleroys. Without prescribing perfect etiquette, Keller serves up sound, friendly advice for maintaining a peaceable kingdom. Ages 5-8. (Sept.)