Professor of Etiquette

Children will be hard-pressed to know what to make of this arch discussion of manners, which is neither clearly a guide nor a sendup; even readers old enough to take in the fussy, sophisticated text--the Professor's vocabulary includes such advanced words as ``erudite,'' ``orgiastic'' and ``Carolingian''--may be nonplussed. Brief pointers on matters such as the importance of covering one's mouth during a yawn, yielding to ladies when entering or exiting the elevator and restraining one's gesticulations in the street are followed by a lengthy disquisition on the proper method of deploying a toothpick after dining on steak. De Mejo's primitive, somewhat static illustrations are a bit more accessible and more successfully satirical, but they cannot rescue the whole. Marc Brown and Steven Krensky's Perfect Pigs takes on the thorny subject of manners in a more straightforward, helpful (and infinitely funnier) way. Ages 4-up. (Oct.)