Free How To Speak Politely & Why Ebooks Online
Updated for the 21st century, How to Speak Politely and Why is a picture book with a point: proper speech and good grammar without nagging. It aims to remove “ain’t” and “uh-huh” and “gimme” and “got” and a score of unfortunate nuances by a simple, sure painless and humorous process. In his signature style of amusing stick figure drawings and captions, Leaf makes clear such things as the difference between can and may, and the reason why one does not say “he done it” or “she come.”Exasperated parents (and grandparents) faced with the unpleasant task of dealing with grammatical lapses acquired by their children from (gasp!) their neighbor’s children will be delighted (and relieved) by this veritable “grammar without tears.” Teachers will find it an indispensable ally, and even the culprits themselves—the children—will discover that learning to speak politely and correctly isn’t such a chore after all.
Hardcover: 56 pages
Publisher: Universe (August 9, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0789313529
ISBN-13: 978-0789313522
Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 0.7 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #97,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #100 in Books > Children's Books > Education & Reference > Reading & Writing > Grammar #219 in Books > Children's Books > Growing Up & Facts of Life > Friendship, Social Skills & School Life > Manners #26978 in Books > Reference
Age Range: 5 - 9 years
Grade Level: Kindergarten - 4
An important book for kids as they are learning language. I got it for my four year old niece and she now makes it a habit of saying "yes" instead of "yeah." It seems insignificant, but is really charming and nice to hear.
I purchased the Munroe Leaf series on manners as a tool for teaching foster children acceptable behavior. I remember the books from my childhood and as a child I loved the pictures and the no-nonsense lessons. I have found that the children in my care also have loved these books, and we use them as tools to overcome some behavior that is not acceptable in our home, or in society. I think all children would benefit from, and learn from these fun little books.
I really wanted to like this book, but I don't. He is writing to teach children not to say words like "ain't" which I would like to think most people don't say. He has a point with the word "gimmee" but it's pretty much the only one-- I made the mistake of reading it and my daughter never said that and now she knows the word.The rest of the book has simple conjugations-- I ran, he ran, we ran, I run, etc. that are not such an issue.The book we need is a book modeling interactions between people saying please and thank you, not a book instructing kids not to say "ain't".His other book, How to Behave and Why, is better, but still has that instructional feel which may not be the best way to get a message across.
This book is well written, really for any age, I bought it for my grandchildren, but I learned so much that I now have it at my home also. What a wonderful way to open dialogue with your child regarding polite words, there really is a need for this book and the author's other 2 books on manners and behavior. I truly have enjoyed this collection and will treasure them.
My 6 year-old actually started to say, "May I please be excused?" when wanting to leave the table! I didn't even have to ask him to do it! I just love this book and I will keep it forever. It pertains to adults, too!
I bought this, because I liked the educational value. My son is only two and a half, so I figured this would be relegated to a shelf for a few years. I red it the night I bought it and figured that was it. Imagine my surprise when he began to ask for it every few nights! The pictures are simple and not very colorful. There is no excitement or set plot. In other words, I figured it would be very dull to children. Yet somehow he really likes this book. I like that he will eventually learn from this book and will now buy the rest of the set.
Perhaps I should have read more reviews. This rather dated book doesn't stand the test of time -- it is not as much about speaking politely as it is about speaking with proper grammar. It catalogs some old-timey poor grammar and slang, and explains the proper English way to express the same idea, e.g. don't use AIN'T, say MAY instead of CAN when requesting something, use NICELY instead of NICE as an adverb, don't forget the G on the end of PLAYING and say YES instead of UH-HUH etc.It doesn't get into a discussion of grammar or parts of speech, but simply describes usage and indicates the correct use.Somehow I expected this book to be more about interactions between people and how and why to use respectful language. This book's purpose seems to be teaching someone who speaks like a Hollywood version of a 1940s "hillbilly" to speak in standard English.The simple illustrations are darling in a crude way, but the layout and typography of the book is not very attractive. Lots of very short paragraphs that are justified so it's hard to read with a lot of random white space.Just doesn't seem that useful unless you've got a real mini Eliza Doolittle or Jethro Bodine on your hands. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNgv4Jp6ipc
I love other Munro Leaf books and I bought this one sight unseen. This one is alright, but most of the pages are spent correcting grammatical mistakes my kids don't make so it's not very helpful to us. This book is not about how to phrase things in a polite manner but how to come off as more polite by dropping the lazy or overly-colloquial language. I also find the other Leaf books appropriate for a much younger age group, 2+, than this one. To the extent my three year old gets adverbs and subjective and objective pronouns right, it is because he hears them used properly, not because he's had a lesson on them. One final note, I know many people find the illustrations charming, but they are really off-putting to me, not because they are old-fashioned but because they're poorly done.
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