Deputy Dorkface

How Mannerland Got Its Manners Back

Children - General
32 Pages
Reviewed on 10/17/2013
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Patricia Reding for Readers' Favorite

In How Mannerland Got Its Manners Back, Kevin D. Janison tells of how “America’s most polite city” changed in the blink of an eye. When a rushing wind blew apart the “Welcome to Mannerland” sign, leaving only the portion reading “Land,” Deputy Dorkface knew that trouble was brewing. From that moment on, the children changed. No longer were they obedient, polite, and thoughtful. They became little terrors. They would not clean their rooms, talked with their mouths full, and demanded rather than requested things. They forgot all about sharing, kindness, and the feelings of others.

When the behavior of the children grew unbearable and nothing the parents did to get the children to behave worked, Deputy Dorkface enlisted the assistance of the townspeople to build a town within the town just for the children. There the children could decide their own proper behavior without adult supervision — though the adults secretly watched all that transpired. Over the next days, the children did as they pleased, chewed with their mouths full, slammed doors, gossiped, and failed to attend to their personal hygiene. They even picked their noses! Only when things became unbearable did the children want to go home but then they had to earn their way back.

There are many lessons for children in How Mannerland Got Its Manners Back that Janison artfully weaves into the story. With the assistance of Eldon Doty’s vivid and colorful illustrations, children will see the sad state that a community would be in if no one cared to do the right and proper thing. How Mannerland Got Its Manners Back is a wonderful story for parents and teachers to share with young people — if they can get them to be polite enough, long enough, to sit down and listen.