Reviews - Riverside Public Library

Horn Book Guide Reviews

As in [cf2]Time to Pee![cf1], a cheerleading gang of mice offer tips and encouragement on manners. The breezy etiquette lesson briefly touches on when to say "please" as well as on three other common phrases that "can come in handy." The clean cartoon art offers lots of details to pore over. A simple board game is printed inside the jacket. Copyright 2005 Horn Book Guide Reviews.

Horn Book Magazine Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

After it's Time to Pee (2003), apparently it's time to learn manners. The swarms of placard-bearing mice who cheered children through the agonies of toilet training return, this time to instruct them in the basics of etiquette: "If you every really want something, / . . . PLEASE say 'PLEASE'!" Floating on balloons, skydiving in, screeching through in ambulances, the helpful mice demonstrate the many situations where "please" might be appropriate, as well as the utility of "excuse me," "sorry" ("But you have to mean it!"), and "thank you." As in his previous offering, Willems delivers an entirely kid-centered lesson, with the occasional gentle dose of reality: "You may not get what you want." After asserting that, "you can never say please too often," a little girl who has just successfully gotten a cookie holds up a placard of her own as the mice entreat her to share with some 30 plus iterations of the magic word: "Then again, maybe you CAN." The zany antics of the mice compel close-and repeated-readings, and the inevitable question: Please, sir, may we have some more? (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus 2005 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.

Library Media Connection

With his usual perfect blend of text and illustration, the author has created a lesson in manners without the slightest hint of didacticism. A rich collection of multicultural children are encouraged to use the magic words "please," "thank you," "excuse me," and "sorry" by a legion of merry mice holding a variety of creative text bubbles in the form of blackboards, dirigibles, balloons, trucks, and boats. There are cameo appearances from Willems' previous books, including the pigeon and Mo himself. The characters and very simple text are effectively highlighted in softly muted shades of blues, greens, and browns against a generous white background, and Willems' skilled cartoonist hand is evident in the fascinating activities of the delightfully expressive mice whose antics constantly expand and enrich the text. The book begins with a child wanting a cookie and ends happily when her "please" is rewarded, but there is a moment of suspense while the dad thinks about his response. An added treat is a related board game at the back of the book. The author's gentle humor and dead-on accurate flair for understanding a child's point of view will have readers begging to "please" read this book again and again! Highly Recommended. Quinby Frank, Freelance Reviewer, Bethesda, Maryland © 2005 Linworth Publishing, Inc.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

Willems's assertive characters know what they want, but they seldom ask for it politely. In this etiquette lesson (from which Pigeon, star of a few other of Willems's picture books, could benefit), the author explains the tactical usefulness of the magic word. The gaggle of Ignatz-lookalike mice first introduced in Time to Pee! dispense the lesson, instructing a girl who wants a cookie by holding up four red placards shaped like stop signs ("Don't just grab it!") to arrest her first impulse. As she resists their advice, the mute mice-who might have an ulterior motive-wave banners and fly tiny zeppelins emblazoned with word-by-word commands: "Go ask a big person/ and/ Please say `please'!" Then, in a digression from the main story, they and some other children demonstrate the versatile applications of "please," "excuse me," "sorry" and "thank you" ("you have to mean it!"). Finally the girl appeals to her father with a gracefully hand-lettered "please" that does the trick, and the tutorial concludes with the rodents begging (politely) for a bite of her hard-earned cookie. The simply drawn children recall the various Peanuts characters, and the insistent mice clown around in ways that reward rereading. This title lacks the hilarity of Willems's previous accounts of persuasion, but it does assert the power of a spoonful of sugar. Ages 3-6. (June) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal Reviews

PreS-Gr 3-This painless introduction to good manners is sure to produce a generation of more civilized beings. With tongue firmly in cheek, Willems uses an army of mice and a cast of multicultural children to cover the basics of polite conversation: please, excuse me, sorry, and thank you. The tiny rodents are responsible for maneuvering the colorful text bubbles (and parachutes, arrows, signs, hot-air balloons, sails, wrecking balls, etc.). Framing the words in creative ways against expansive white backgrounds reinforces their importance while providing a boost to beginning readers. The examples speak directly to a young child's experience, thereby inspiring the motivation to try the author's suggestions: "If you ever really want something"-the illustration shows an entranced girl eyeing a cookie jar-"...don't just grab it! Go ask a big person and please say `please'!" Other relevant situations follow as the mice instruct and cajole the youngsters on the art of approaching adults while remaining sincere. A certain pigeon makes a cameo appearance, and a simple board game decorates the endpapers. While treatises on good manners abound, this entertaining and practical guide is closest to the spirited style of Sesyle Joslin's What Do You Say, Dear? (HarperCollins, 1958). Willems offers no sermons, no sentimentality, just good sense-and fun, thank you very much.-Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.