View source for Yucky Mucky Manners by Sam Lloyd

{{infobox2
|title=Yucky Mucky Manners
|author=Sam Lloyd
|reviewer=Ruth Ng
|genre=For Sharing
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-1846169472
|pages=32
|publisher=Orchard
|date=July 2012
|aznuk=1846169488
|aznus=184616947X
|cover=1846169488
|summary=What child doesn't like a book about bogeys and farts?!  Suitably disgusting and helpful for teaching good manners!
}}
Down in the jungle, we're taking a walk to meet the animals.  Sadly their manners leave a lot to be desired.  Gorilla is picking his nose, Zebra is eating with his mouth open and parrot is talking over all his friends.  Are there any polite animals to be found?

Children do tend to love stories that involve bogeys and farts.  I expect there's something funny about seeing mummy or daddy reading these words out loud for a start, and when you're three years old pretty much anything that involves bottoms is absolutely hilarious!  This book, then, is perfect for those in the silly giggles stage about such things.  But it isn't all silliness since there are plenty of lessons you can teach your little one along the way about ''good'' manners and how they ''should'' behave!

We meet a whole range of animals in the jungle, all with different bad manners.  As well as the toilet humour (such as the giraffe who poos on his friend!) there are those who push and shove or don't cover their mouths when they sneeze or don't wash properly.  The range of manners is good, although as I was reading it did feel that it went on a little too long somehow as perhaps there were just one too many animal examples to read through.  Otherwise, the rhyming verses are well written and introduce lots of ideas for discussing how we should behave.

The illustrations are fun - colourful and funny.  They're quite simply drawn and a little too childish for my personal taste, but there's plenty of colour and action for your little listeners to enjoy.  And I must admit that the picture of the ape showing his bare bottom did make me smile!

Of course, there is always the possibility that you'll introduce this book to your toddler with the best of intentions and they will end up adopting more bad habits, but it's a fun read so it's worth the risk!  A fun story that would work well to share in a playgroup or nursery too.

For more about manners try [[Atchoo! The Complete Guide To Good Manners by Mij Kelly and Mary McQuillan]] or [[The Scallywags by David Melling]].  You might like [[Please Bear's Birthday by Avril Lethbridge, Diana Mather and Mary-Ann Mackenzie]] but Bookbag thought that it was a bit too much of a blunt instrument.

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