STOO HAMPLE’S BOOK OF BAD MANNERS

From the opening lineup of seemingly angelic nogoodniks to the closing view of a lad mooning viewers, this diatribe against the unmannerly couldn’t be verse. Plainly modeled on Gelett Burgess’s Goops, simply-drawn cartoon children hog toys, slouch, ignore parental requests to clean up their rooms, talk during movies and such sins—along with burping, farting with a smile and eating boogers—to the tune of rhymes that range from labored to lame. “Food-Face” talks with her mouth full, so, “Whoever’s beside her / Is very unlucky, / ’Cause being so close / Is gross—and quite yucky!” Closing with a less-than-effective threat—“If you’re equally awful, / Not nice or polite, / You’ll be in the next / Book like this that I write.” These bad examples are far less likely to result in any sort of behavior modification than Jane Yolen’s How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? (2005) or any of the plethora of other, more imaginative approaches to the topic. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-8)