Please and thank you

You can take the girl out of Jersey...
Wait, scratch that.
Apparently, you really *can't*.
Today my brother and I attended the second annual Princeton Children's Book Festival, sponsored by the Princeton Public Library. Although I'm mostly known for my teen writing, this was a proper children's book fair, in that most participating authors write and/or illustrate picture books or chapter books. So while I brought and displayed all of my ro coms, of course, I was really there to shill the etiquette book I wrote last fall, MIND YOUR MANNERS, DICK & JANE.

Actually, most parents I met were more familiar with Dick and Jane than their children were, since they grew up learning to read with Dick, Jane, Sally, and Spot. But in the past few years, Grosset & Dunlap (also the home of the original Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys) has revived the property, reissuing old favorites and creating new content for a whole new generation of readers. While MANNERS contains a bunch of practical advice for being on one's best behavior, it's very tongue in cheek and intentionally irreverent. So I was THRILLED to find that my reading (wherein I was graciously assisted by brother Dave in a cheeky call-and-response format) was a huge success.

Most parents I spoke to today told me that MANNERS was a book that their kids really need! But when Dave and I launched into "Do's and Don't's for a Happy Household (DO: Share your toys, DON'T: Share your toothbrush), we were met with laughter from an audience of all-ages.

Good humor--and good manners--have no expiration date, huh?