Reviews for Chicken fingers, mac and cheese-- why do you always have to say please?
Publishers Weekly
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In this bare-bones etiquette manual delivered in flat rhyming couplets, a girl and her little brother serve as examples of do's and don'ts as they dine in a fancy restaurant (albeit one that serves chicken fingers and mac and cheese). Predictably, Lily serves as manners exemplar ("Lily has a restaurant voice./ It's never loud or whiney./ She knows how to say `Thank You,'/ and just where to keep her hiney"). Most of the pointers are directed at the seemingly incorrigible Max and his ilk. A wide range of true-to-life tips, from how sit in a banquette to no whining ("No whining when dining./ it just isn't fair,/ to all of the people who like quiet air) may attest to the credentials of author and illustrator (both mothers) but come off as didactic. The almost schematic ink and grey-wash illustrations and amateurish layout give the book the feel of a home-produced pamphlet; dollops of red color-in Lily's bows, the flowers on the table-only add to this impression. The advice, as presented here, is like nutritious food that fails to ignite children's sensory stimuli. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
In this etiquette book illustrated in amateurish black-and-white line art, sibling restaurant diners Lily and Max model behaviors good and bad. The book features unbearably strained rhymes (""Never throw food. It's rude and it's messy. / And you'd feel just awful, / if you hit someone's Aunt Tessie"") and other unsuccessful attempts at humor. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
