Terrific Table Manners

by Michelle Markel, Merrilee Liddiard (Illustrator)

Overview

A mischievous modern manners primer for kids

Inspired by the classic Tiffany’s primer on manners for teens and featuring a familiar cast of characters, Terrific Table Manners is a modern take on table etiquette that follows the course of a proper dinner-party meal. Young readers will learn essential amenities such as sending the invite and RSVP, the use for all of those different forks, how to politely sip soup and engage in delightful (not dreadful) conversation, and writing thank-you notes. Sharing a meal has never been this exciting and funny.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781951836238
Publisher:	Abrams
Publication date:	10/12/2021
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	7.15(w) x 8.55(h) x 0.65(d)
Age Range:	5 - 7 Years

About the Author

Michelle Markel is a writer, journalist, teacher, and author of several award-winning, starred-reviewed picture books. She lives in Los Angeles. Merrilee Liddiard is an author, illustrator, and blogger of kids design, crafts, and DIY at mermagblog.com. She lives in Utah.

Editorial Reviews

2021-08-18
Two adults host a dinner party to teach etiquette to kids.

Mr. Faris (“went to manners school in Paris”) and Prudence (“she’ll be sitting with the students”) are utterly serious about dining protocols at this long, pristine table set with china and silver. Markel and Liddiard aim for the memorization-offset-by-mischief they achieved in Terrible Times Tables (2019), and it partly works: Adults are baddies (for being prim); kids are energetic; things get mildly gross for giggles (“No smacking lips, try not to slurp. / Kevin—we all heard you burp”); and some of the rhymes are bang-on (respect/incorrect; list/dismissed). By the end, a grand mess is made. On the other hand, some rhymes and scansions are maddening near misses (commotion/potions—why not make them both singular??—and “You are not a trained seal at a show! / Hold asparagus stalks just so” when You’re would work better). Moreover, some of the rules are musty and outdated—the prohibition on discussing politics or religion and the requirement to accept servings of food when you don’t want them. Sober endnotes pleading for good manners won’t touch a single reader. However, the limited-palette illustrations using browns, grays, and spirited lines to show this multiracial group of kids getting into gleeful trouble are hard to resist.

Not the primer it means to be but playful nevertheless. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews