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The Story Behind this Story by Author, Susan Elsworth:

In 1999 I volunteered at my son's Kindergarten class in Virginia. I was horrified at the way the children interacted with each other.  I asked if anyone worked with the students on social skills.  The response was that there was not enough resources, time or manpower to handle what was already an overcrowded curriculum. 

The principal asked if I would like to take on this task and work with the students to help with basic manners. I was excited to accept the challenge and it snowballed from there.  The overwhelming response from the teachers was so positive and encouraging.  With the use of a flip chart and handouts I created characters that the students could identify with, and a story line that would promote total interaction and engage the students in role playing.  The requests for presentations snowballed and I ended up working with over 10,000 school children in many different schools in Virginia, London and subsequently Little Rock, AR. 

There is a strong market for this form of early education. In my opinion, programs such as this should be mandatory in all schools.  We see daily how school children are struggling with so many issues outside of academics.  We focus so much on academics and sports, but we should also be focusing on 'the whole' student. The issues schools face with bad behavior is becoming global in scope.  

This book is a compilation of the literature I have been presenting to pre-school and elementary school students since 1999.  My main objective was to present a fun and interactive way to teach manners whether in the classroom, at home with a parent/caregiver, or for a little person navigating the book individually.   

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