Don't Forget Your Etiquette!: The Essential Guide to Misbehavior »

DAVID GREENBERG's picture books in verse include the popular Slugs. He lives in Portland, Oregon. NADINE BERNARD WESTCOTT has illustrated countless humorous picture books, including Hello, Snow! by Hope Vestergaard. She lives in Nantucket, Massachusetts.

If you're smart, you'll read my book

Of modern children's etiquette.

If you don't, I'm sad to say -

Your life will be pathetiquette.

Meet Miss Information, the world's foremost expert on bad behavior, as she offers upside-down advice about the etiquette of absolutely everything. In twenty impishly off-center poems she states her views on such important topics as bathing (with and without gerbils), kissing (Komodo dragons as well as teachers), and eating.

Exuberant illustrations full of hilarious antics add to the humor of this mischievous spoof on bad behavior. These sly poems offer a child-friendly way to discuss what good behavior really should be like and are sure to become every child's essential guide to - a rollicking good time!

Children's Literature

Kids are given the lowdown of how to behave by Miss Information and many of the chapters are headed by quotes from serious treatises on etiquette. The twenty poems are all in good fun and kids will enjoy reading the book, perhaps one poem at a time. The twenty chapters include "The Etiquette of Museums" and "The Etiquette of Burping." In "The Etiquette of Shaking Hands," kids are advised, "When you shake hands with the mayor,/Talk about the weather,/Say Excuse me,' then bend down—/And tie his shoes together." Miss Information accepts that there are those kids who "do not getiquette." Her final words include a warning of sorts, indicating that when her young readers have kiddies of their own there, Miss Information will be ready to give them advice as well. Comic illustrations add a robust touch.