cover image Oh, How Sylvester Can Pester! And Other Poems More or Less About Manners

Oh, How Sylvester Can Pester! And Other Poems More or Less About Manners

Robert Kinerk, illus. by Drazen Kozjan, S&S/Wiseman, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4169-3362-5

This neatly crafted collection of etiquette poems covers all the traditional juvenile sins: interrupting ("When someone is speaking—a grown-up, let's say—/ can you interrupt? In general, no way"); talking during movies ("There ought to be armies of top-notch, trained booers/ protesting those loudmouths disturbing us viewers"); and chewing with one's mouth full. Kozjan's manners-minders are both diverse and retro; there's a distinctly Hilary Knight feel to his bespectacled, necktie-wearing dads. Oddly, the real manners problems of the day—cellphones and texting—go unmentioned. Nevertheless, it's a sterling performance. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)