Do Unto Otters: A Book About Manners

I am an educator of 20+ years. I have been reading this to my K5 and 1st grade students this year. The illustrations are cute and humorous--lots of giggles from my students. There are a lot of manners covered so we've been discussing one manner a day. The students love the page in the beginning where the rabbit hops and says "doo-dee-doo." We do that together each day (lots of giggles), and review the previous day's manners. My students wouldn't get as much out of this book without discussion and teaching. Also, the layout is a bit different so without some guidance and discussion, I think it would be difficult for my students to read independently (5-6 yrs old). A bit of the humor is over their heads, but I think it is funny. I'm almost through the book and it's taken us maybe 5-6 days. My students have really enjoyed the book, and I like the emphasis of the golden rule. I'm not sure if I can remember all of the manners, but it covers politeness, consideration, honesty, helpful, fair play, kindness. There are a couple more I can't remember. I think a 2-3 grader could read this independently, but I think it is much more fun as a read-aloud.

I bought this book for my five year old daughter after we had originally loaned it from the public library and she fell in love with it, requesting that I read it to her several times a day. I feel it is very age appropriate for a child 4-8 years old depending on their maturity level. This book is excellent for teaching without lecturing. It also has a lot of humor in it that makes it enjoyable for adults to read to children too. It is beautifully illustrated and entertaining, keeping children's attention throughout the whole book. This is a book that I am thankful my daughter enjoys as it does teach the important lesson of doing unto others as you would want done unto yourself.

Laurie Keller certainly has a vivid imagination, and all of her books play to kids' silly sides. This book is a great way to teach kids about the importance of being polite, without being preachy. My son and I laugh out loud when we read this book. She covers being friendly, saying please, thank you, and excuse me, honesty, cooperation, fair play, sharing, not teasing, forgiveness, and apologizing, and she throws in how to say some of the words in 5 different languages (one being pig Latin!) For those reviewers that slammed her use of passing gas, I feel that this is blown way out of proportion to the book as a whole. It is on one page of the book and it is only one side-bar illustration. And, let's face it, passing gas is funny to a 6 year old, but she shows the importance of having good manners about it if it happens to you. Please, thank you, and excuse me are oftentimes not heard uttered by the age group that she targets, so it is great way to share a story with your child while driving the point home that EVERYONE needs to have good manners. You and your child will thoroughly enjoy this book.

This book is so awesome . I heard about it only a few years ago but finally got to add it to my library collection at school. This is such a cute book to teach manners and how to treat people and to just be plain kind. I have done this reading also for a buddy reading project with a 1st and 3rd grade class and it was a huge hit. Thank you Ms. Keller .

I bought this book for the comical illustrations. I didn't realize the illustrations would be so weird. Because most pages have a lot of written chat all over and some weird looking otters. However, a very talented teacher who read this to her students could very much get the kids to understand the importance of forgiving, forgetting, and moving on.

My four year-old son really likes this book. It touches on all the basics of common courtesy without hitting them over the head with it or preaching, as it's done in a humorous manner. My boy has good manners, but it's something I want to keep reinforcing as he plays with neighbor kids whose parents are very lax, to put it mildly, and I don't want my boy to pick up their bad habits. He thinks this book is hilarious. We have a few other manners books, but they're not as hilarious to my son as this one. Warning: there's sort of a very small fart joke in this book, but you CAN easily skip over it or make up something else, HOWEVER, you'd be missing a private opportunity to talk to your kid about how to handle passing gas in public. My son looks forward to other books by this author!

I got this book for my 7 & 9 year old who were having some trouble remembering the "Golden Rule." This book was a big help and really dives into what it means to treat "Otters" the way you want to be treated. A really cute play on words and my children reference it all the time!

I've never seen a better book to introduce children to good manners. This one uses a cute animal premise -- Mr. Rabbit doesn't know how to treat his new neighbors, who are otters -- to build a smart, spirited tale based on the Golden Rule. Each page spread teaches the value of a different type of behavior. One shows how it helps to be friendly, another one honest, another one apologetic. But the book is never preachy, and, in fact, barely serious. There are lots of visual and verbal gags, and the inspired artwork mixes the friendliness of the character designs in the movie Ratatouille with the wackiness of SpongeBob SquarePants. Designed for years of use, the book has a reinforced binding, and a dust jacket that's printed with the same art as that on the cover itself.

Great book

Fluffy Little Kitten in Fluffy Little Kitten Falls Over I shouldn't really be recommending any children's books instead of my own (link above) but I just had to say, this book is great. On the surface you might think the subject matter is a bit dry - a rabbit is worried about his otter neighbours and learns about having good manners and showing consideration to others - but it's definitely one to read and read again. As well as the main story, each page is packed with little visual jokes and asides - you genuinely do have to go through it a few times to notice everything. The pictures are great, the book has a real sense of humour. You should definitely get this! (and mine too!)

Educational and entertaining for children. Very good book.

fun and quirky book to help children learn about manners.

I teach social skills to students in elementary school and have used this book on several occasions. The kids loved it and caught on to some of the quirks and puns. It also had the teachers chuckling. It reads really well and promotes a great discussion afterwards. The story is about a rabbit who learns that otters are moving next door. He goes through the story wondering how to interact with them. An owl tells him to do onto otters as he would want otters to do onto him. From there we linked it to race, gender culture etc. Highly recommended!