Description: A hilarious and delightful monster world created by Joanna Cole! ● "Don't be nice to your friends, and don't greet grown-ups!" — The freedom found in monster manners In the world of monsters, becoming a well-mannered child is simple. Just do whatever you want, and don't hesitate to misbehave. Fighting with friends every day, showing off your strength by crunching on rocks, and making fierce, scary faces are all shortcuts to becoming a polite little monster. Even when a young monster barges into someone's house, jumps wildly on the beloved sofa, knocks over a vase on the rug on purpose, and even stomps hard on someone's foot, the grown-up monsters beam with pride and say, "Well done!" Children reading this book might tilt their heads in confusion at first. Behaviors that would get a human child scolded are praised as "polite" in the monster world! But soon, readers will find themselves swept up in the monsters' outrageous, unapologetic antics. In this way, Learning Monster Manners uses the imaginary world of monsters to playfully twist the idea of "manners" into "naughty" behavior, giving children an indirect outlet for the pent-up desires they've had to suppress in order to be good and praised by grown-ups. Simply imagining this cheerfully mischievous monster world can help children feel comforted, freeing them—if only in their imagination—from the rigid boundaries adults set, and letting them feel like they can play and do as they please. ● Being different isn't being wrong! — The change brought by "peculiar" Rosie In the world of monsters, our heroine Rosie is a "strange" kid. She brushes her teeth right after eating, and politely says "How do you do?" to grown-ups she's just met. She considers others' feelings first and always uses kind, gentle words—much to her parents' great worry. But Rosie's odd qualities eventually shine. When a broken pipe leaves their house in a total mess and everyone is at their wit's end, Rosie's polite request brings the plumber running right over to fix it! Looking around their now-clean house, thanks to Rosie's "strange manners," her parents finally say, "Don't worry about manners anymore, sweetheart." It's the moment Rosie—once seen as a "worry" and an "odd child"—is finally accepted just as she is. In this way, another wonderful message of Learning Monster Manners is helping children accept and understand others who look or act differently from themselves. Children who understand the difference between "wrong" and "different" will grow up to see the world with a kinder heart and a broader perspective. ● The exact monster I always imagined! — Playful comic-style illustrations bursting with color The illustrator of this book, Jared Douglas Lee, is both an illustrator and cartoonist. He brings to life the kind of monster everyone has imagined at least once, with humor and charm. The comic-style pages—filled with speech bubbles and multiple paneled frames—help spark a love of reading in early elementary readers who are just transitioning from picture books to chapter books. The vibrant color palette, anchored by a lively green, adds extra energy and fun, keeping readers' eyes glued to every page.