You all know... "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," but what about "Are You Quite Polite?" and Quiet in the Library" ?!
Songwriter and comedy writer extraordinaire Alan Katz has done it again! Turning his attention to the subject of good and bad manners, he has created a hilarious new guide to manners that kids will love to follow -- laughing all the way! With brilliantly funny pictures by illustrator and cartoonist David Catrow, this new collection promises hours of well-mannered silly dillyness for kids everywhere!
I enjoy the silliness of his books. New words to familiar tunes is my type of thing. AND it teaches good manners. sort of. I don't know all of the tunes used (surprisingly) and some of the words fit akwardly in some songs, but all in all, a fun read/sing-a-long.
When I was a child, I hated people like the author. I hated it when adults talked to children that way. However, I also write parody lyrics, so I have to respect that. I'm not an expert, but some of the ways the lyrics were written struck me as odd, and went too far away from the song. But artistic expression is artistic expression. Additionally most of these songs are songs that most children have no clue about. However I think that gives parents reading the book to their child a chance to do some research and learn. I support people looking up and learning old songs.
I was not impressed with this book at all. I am not sure if it was because it was not what I expected or what. I guess in away there are good parts of this book because it is teaching about manners. Since I am a musician I guess what I wasn't sure of is the tunes to some of these songs, so I did look some of them up on youtube. The artwork in this book is nothing to fancy. Sorry but this book just wasn't what I expected it was going to be.
This silly dilly book is quite fun, and illustrated by my favorite David Catrow. However, it’s not the best book in the series. I think the best book is Where Did you Hide My Presents. Second would be Take Me Out of the Bath Tub. If you like those, then you are sure to like this. My favorite song is probably Quiet in the Library. I wonder why…..?
I did not like this book at all. The illustrations are the same style as the other Silly Dilly books, but these songs were not that great. I especially didn't like how the "Rules, Rules, Rules" song ended with, "Be a kid, but don't have any fun!". You can still have fun with rules...rules are usually written to keep you and/or others safe.
It was fine, kid liked it, did not bring anything new to the series. Please put musical notation or something in these books...especially by book 3 I just don't know some of these tunes.
We love these books. We love bellowing these songs at the top of our lungs, and the tunes given are generally familiar to us - Alouette, Pop Goes the Weasel, and so on, although sometimes fitting the words to the melody is a bit of a stretch.
There's definitely some potty humor in here, which appeals to most kids. For example, the song about not putting your mouth on the water fountain finishes with "And stop drinking from the toilet by the way!" (That's a weird illustration too - the toilet has a fountain attachment? Is it like a bidet?) One about not picking your nose in public shows a boy picking his friends' noses - they're not too happy about this.
And they do make sure to spell out Just What Not To Do - some people are concerned that this encourages bad behavior in and of itself. I disagree. I find that my nieces understand that the examples are over the top and chosen to be funny, not as anything to emulate!
I don't object to this at all, I think it's hilarious, but if these things concern you should, as always, read the book before buying.
I absolutely adore singing these to my children and they love to hear them and have started to try and sing them as well.
I took one star away because a few of the songs were really difficult to find the tune on because I'm not familiar with them. I've loaded up instrumentals on the ones I didn't know and still had a hard time matching the tune and rhythm. I replaced the song completely on two of them, one of them was supposed to be America the Beautiful, but works much better as the theme to Gilligan's Island.
If you are easily grossed out or find kid style potty humor less than amusing, this book probably won't do anything to change that. I found the songs entertaining with their tongue in cheek and a grain of salt silliness and definitely recommend this to anyone young or old as long as your sense of humor is naturally relaxed.
SUMMARY: Katz once again sets his silly verses to classic song tunes such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This time the topic is manners with songs such as "Writing Thank Yous." ILLUSTRATIONS: The illustrations were not as fun throughout the book as in past Silly Dilly books, but there are a few extra funny pictures.
REVIEW: It felt like Katz had run out of ideas in this book. The verses were not as clever and laugh out loud funny, but there are a few good ones. I had a hard time appreciating some of the verses because I either didn't know the song or because I had a difficult time maintaining the tune with different words inserted.
AGE RECOMMENDATION: As with most of Katz's work, I find the potty humor and grossness factor to be better geared to the older elementary age group of 8-12.
This is a book of poetry intended for nursery and primary readers. It is a compalation of poems on manners. It teches kids how to act in a funny way and it gives a familiar tune if you wish to sing it. I thought it was funny. I remember as a kid my younger sister getting yelled at because she had to stop at every water fountain and drink from it. My step father would always tell her to keep her mouth off the faucet or she would get hoof and mouth disease. This book had a poem about that too. Sometimes kids feel like you are just getting on their case about everything but this book will make them see it is just something you have to do and it has nothing to do with trying to make your life miserable.
Book: Are You Quite Polite? Authors: Alan Katz Illustrator: David Catrow Pages: 32
What a creative way to teach children manners! This book takes classic songs like twinkle twinkle little star and pop goes the weasel and reinvents them. This book brings humor to the dreaded topic of manners and rules. Instead of it being "pop goes the weasel" now it's "pop separates them" in a tale of brother and sister quarreling. Each page has a different song and a new lesson. Don't stick your gum under the table. Don't touch the water fountain with your mouth. Don't pick your nose. Clean up after yourself and get along with others. Don't talk with food in your mouth. The lessons go on and on. This book would be best set for younger readers.
Illustrator: David Catrow Publisher: Margaret K McElderry Date of Publication: 2006
Genre: Poems, Songs Reading Level: age 4-8 Theme: Manners, Politeness
Curricula Use: teach children to be polite and have manners Social issues: social class
Text & Pictures: Each poem has a different segment with a picture to correspond to that text Summary: This book is a complete work of poems on manners that are set to the tune of familiar children's songs. This is a delightful, informative way to use text with a song.
This book only just barely got this rating. I really wasn't very impressed with this book at all. Some of the songs were downright gross, some were a tad bit funny. But I wasn't overly thrilled with this book of silly dilly songs. There were a couple really good lines that almost made me smile, but not enough to redeem this book. I probably wouldn't recommend.
This is not your ordinary picture book. Are You Quite Polite? is actually a collection of silly songs teaching all about manners. Every song goes to the tune of another familiar children's song. This is a super fun book for when the kids want to giggle, sing, and dance. I "read" this with my preschool class and we sang every song and even some twice! They were making their own versions and singing the songs all day. Definitely fun!
The very distinctive artwork of Bruce Catrow is the first thing that catches the eye with this book and then you start reading through the 'songs' which are poems set to the tune of songs you have probably heard. My favorite one is the library song. I'm trying to think of a way to incorporate this into a presentation at some point in time!
Not as solid as some of his previous poem collections, but there are still several delightful ones in this new batch. The "Quiet in the Library", the title poem and "Pop Separates Them" are stand-outs for great read-alouds/sing-alongs!
Ok book. Cute poems but some a little obnoxious for boys...they tend to hold onto the bad (funny) parts and not remember the one line about not to do the behavior. Poems were to be sung along to popular children's tunes yet found it hard to do with some of the poems.
I absolutely love this book. I love to use these songs as a way to get younger students engaged and they love it as well. Most of the songs are pretty familiar and students seem to find some of the songs to be funny.
Silly songs put to old tunes, this is a great way to review manners with young kids. Catrow's illustrations make the songs all the more funny!! Great for programming and tandem telling.