Manners and appropriate behavior books never get old. Who hasn't had a parent say to them if you keep doing that your face might freeze that way. Yikes! What if it really did!!! This little girl finds out. ( )

Watch Your Tongue, Cecily Beasley by Lane Fredrickson

Picture Book

Age: 3+

Genre: Manners

Find this book at your local library

Cecily Beasly is a rude and rowdy girl. She doesn’t share her toys and she especially likes to stick out her tongue. At Bernard’s birthday party, she rudely sticks out her tongue only to find that its frozen that way! The mockingbeak tongue-snatcher has a nest and laid some eggs on her tongue. Now Cecily has to wait and wait until the eggs hatch before she can use her tongue again.

Although this book means well, I really didn’t like it. I don’t think its something that translates well to explaining manners and common decency to kids. Cecily is cooped up in her room for 13 days with a bird’s nest on her tongue. When she finally ventures outside, she’s victim to public shaming akin to the Scarlet Letter. In the end, she does realize that she was wrong and writes an apology letter to Bernard, but I don’t feel as if she really learned her lesson. She just felt shamed into feeling guilty. Her parents most certainly didn’t sit down with her to explain what went wrong. In fact, they are almost absent throughout the entire book other than rushing her and her bird’s nest tongue to the emergency room.

There are better books about manners and bullies which actually discuss conflict resolution.

Read more at: https://librarycrossing.wordpress.com/2014/08/26/watch-your-tongue-cecily-beasle... ( )

This is about a little girl that is not very nice and she learns her lesson after the Mockingbeak Tongue-snatcher builds a nest on her tongue. When the birds hatch on Cecily’s tongue and stick their tongues out at her, she learns to be kind to others.

Age: 3-6
Source: pierce college library ( )

Great book, little Cecily is not a very nice young lady, she has a way of rubbing people the wronger way. she has to learn the hard way why manners are important. ( )

Have you ever been told that if you make an ugly face, it might just get stuck? Well this was the unfortunate case for Cecily Beasley. This rude little girl learns her lesson after the Mockingbeak Tongue-snatcher builds a nest on her tongue. Once these birds hatch on Cecily’s tongue, sticking their tongues out at her, she learns to be kind to others. This is a cute story for kids, kindergarten to second grade, learning different kinds of manners. -Shannon ( )