If your little darlings are beating up their playmates, throwing their dinner over the table and leaving their bedrooms in a mess, you may be ready for The Children's Book Of Manners, by Sue Lloyd, illustrated by Jaqueline East (Award Publications, $51).
Lloyd gives children simple but important lessons. If they take turns, share, say thank you, are tidy and eat nicely they will make others and themselves happier people. The book has colourful pictures by East and peel-off stickers to reinforce the message - an excellent starting point for chats about what is acceptable behaviour and what is not.
Getting on with others is also the topic of the uproarious When Pigasso Met Mootisse, by Nina Laden, (Chronicle, $151). A pig and bull both become famous artists and then bitter rivals, before settling their differences by accidentally creating a spectacular joint work of art.
The story is based on the stormy relationship between Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, who, like the pig and bull, finally became friends. Laden does not take their names in vain, offering stunning splashes of art and bags of humour, not to mention some rather painful puns: Mootisse paints a 'moosterpiece' and Pigasso, a 'pork of art'.
There is no compromise in Aunt Nancy And Cousin Lazybones, by Phyllis Root, with zany illustrations by David Parkins (Walker, $170). Cousin Lazybones comes to stay and is, well, very lazy, finding any excuse to get out of the chores. Aunt Nancy comes up with a clever ruse to get rid of him.
The same team's earlier title, Aunt Nancy And Old Man Trouble is republished in paperback (Walker, $102). In this unusual allegoric folk tale, Aunt Nancy is visited by wicked old Trouble, who causes her spring to dry up, the fire to go out and her chair to break. But again this plucky woman finds a way to shrug him off and get on with her life.
