My Manners Matter: A First Look at Being Polite

by Pat Thomas, Lesley Harker (Illustrator)

Titles in the popular "A First Look At" series for pre-school and early-grades kids explore emotional issues, encouraging children to discuss things that bother them with trusted adults. The series also helps them begin to develop basic social skills. Written by a psychotherapist and child counselor, these books promote positive interaction among children, parents, and teachers. They are written in easy-to-comprehend language, and have child-friendly illustrations on every page. Boys and girls learn that good manners are a simple way of showing kindness and respect to people they know--and to people they don't know. They are shown that being polite makes working and playing together more enjoyable for everyone.

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

There is more than one Pat Thomas in the Goodreads catalog. This entry focuses on Pat^Thomas, children's author.

Pat is a trained psychotherapist, naturopath and journalist. After working as a journalist and broadcaster in the USA, she now works in the field of child development and writes for various publications including 'Practical Parenting'.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does a great job of explaining *why* manners matter, emphasizing that they help us live, work and play with others. The illustrations show examples of what happens when people don't mind their manners, and examples of everyone being polite and being happier for it. My 6-year-old never asked for me to read it again, but also never objected when I did so. She seemed to enjoy it and engage with it, and it definitely gave me some language to use when talking about manners with her.

[KateCurtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like how this book is interactive with kids, by prompting the reader to stop reading and ask the kid(s) a question before continuing on with the story.

[Kelsey Vayens · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a book that addresses manners and the importance of good manners. While manners can be applied to everyday activities, this can also relate to community building. As a teacher, we can use this book to do a mini lesson addressing class rules and expectations. We then, as a class, can create our own rules and expectations. In regards to reading and writing, we can write our own rules and then present one to the class and explain why this is important to us and to the entire class.

[Kathrine Rogers]

Manners Week