I picked the book "Do Unto Otters" by Laurie Keller. This is a book that I discovered about a year ago when I was on a kick of buying books. I found it in the Scholastic Books. It is a really funny book about manners and treating people how you would want to be treated, The Golden Rule. Mr. Rabbit moves into his new house and discovers that his new neighbors are otters. He is very worried about this because he does not know what otters are and how they act. He is afraid that they will not be nice to him until Owl tells him to "do unto otters as you would have otters do unto you." He starts listing how he would want otters to treat him. He wants them to be friendly, polite, say thank you, excuse me, be honest, and on and on. He also wants them to apologize and be forgiving. It shows what Mr. Rabbit’s ideas of honest are and shows many ways to be considerate. On bigger words like cooperate, it breaks the word down so the children can understand what it means. Mr. Rabbit also does not want the otters teasing him for the way he is. He likes to sing the “Doo-Dee-Doo” song. It is a very cute book that shows kids how to treat each other. I love this book because the play on words and the pictures are great. It also tells you how to say some phrases in five different languages. In the end, the otters treat Mr. Rabbit as he treats them.I would use this book in my classroom on the first day to establish some good manners. I want to teach second grade but this would be a great book for many grades. I would have the students write out the things that Mr. Rabbit said and we would think of our own rules for the classroom. We would put them on poster boards and decorate them. This would help to create a good community in the classroom and all the students would feel involved. I think this would also help to stop bullying which will not be allowed in my class at all. I would post the children’s ideas around the room and we would all follow the rules. Being able to see the rules all around everyday would help to keep the ideas fresh in their heads.
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