TIME TO SAY PLEASE!

After it’s Time to Pee (2003), apparently it’s time to learn manners. The swarms of placard-bearing mice who cheered children through the agonies of toilet training return, this time to instruct them in the basics of etiquette: “If you every really want something, / . . . PLEASE say ‘PLEASE’!” Floating on balloons, skydiving in, screeching through in ambulances, the helpful mice demonstrate the many situations where “please” might be appropriate, as well as the utility of “excuse me,” “sorry” (“But you have to mean it!”), and “thank you.” As in his previous offering, Willems delivers an entirely kid-centered lesson, with the occasional gentle dose of reality: “You may not get what you want.” After asserting that, “you can never say please too often,” a little girl who has just successfully gotten a cookie holds up a placard of her own as the mice entreat her to share with some 30 plus iterations of the magic word: “Then again, maybe you CAN.” The zany antics of the mice compel close—and repeated—readings, and the inevitable question: Please, sir, may we have some more? (Picture book. 3-6)