Never Trumpet with a Crumpet

In this hilarious, tongue-in-cheek picture book about manners, zoo animals attempt to follow proper etiquette when they are accidentally invited to tea with the queen. “Sit up straight. Don’t slump. Don’t slouch. Lay your napkin on your pouch.” Amy Gibson’s playful, rhyming text offers etiquette advice to zoo animals who scrupulously try, then marvelously fail, to mind their manners at the queen’s tea party (much to the queen’s dismay and the young prince’s delight). Meanwhile, Jenn Harney’s illustrations contrast humorously with the rules spelled out in the narrative: the animals lick their paws, gobble their food, swing from the chandelier, and trumpet while nibbling on a crumpet, in scenes that grow increasingly chaotic as they build to an uproarious finale. This original, ingenious book is unique in its wild sense of wit and its sly, subtle lesson on proper behavior.