How to Speak Politely & Why
Munro Leaf ~ originally published 1934 as Grammar Can be Fun, How to Speak Politely and Why ~ reprinted by Universe, 2005
Now, I first found out about Munro Leaf's manners books when I was with my mother last summer and fell in love with her childhood copy of How to Behave and Why. I never posted on it because there were simply too many books and too little time, but anywho... Shortly thereafter I was thrilled to find that the whole series (Manners Can Be Fun, Reading Can Be Fun, Brushing Your Teeth Can Be Fun) has been reissued by Universe.
We all know and love Munro as the author of The Story of Ferdinand, but in these books the man's true wit and smarts shine bright. The stick figures are hilarious, and the lessons learned are concise and funny and really grab the attention and imagination of my son. This title in particular is a great gift for any of your more literary friends, and reading through it myself, I'm reminded of grammatical hiccups I make all the time. Lay, lied, laid... ugh!
My son gets huge kicks out of the stories, and seeing as we are constantly struggling with manners and correct English, this is a great way to open up the conversation without sounding correcting or (even worse) like a total bore.
Also by:The Story of Ferdinand
I was going to send you a review of How to Behave and Why for the contest but I guess I'll have to dig up something else...rats. We heart that book.
ReplyDeleteWe have read "Reading is Fun" - I like the Munro books...How to Behave and the manners book would definitely be a good addition to our bookshelf for obvious reasons.
ReplyDeleteI tell my students that they too can be among the handful of people in the US who know the difference between lie and lay! Then I act it out for them: "Bad guys, lay down your weapons!" and "I'm so tired, I need to lie down" and "The cute puppy needs to lie down" and "Bad, dog, lay down that shoe!" Then I ask them to make up some, then the following week, they are back to "Can we lay down?". Oh, well...
ReplyDeletePS I sat at a mtg yesterday with a really nice librarian whose in-laws knew the Leaf family. Did you know Munro Leaf wrote scripts or something for WWII US Army?
Wow! What a series of books. Wish I had them here too.
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