Watch Your Tongue, Cecily Beasley

K-Gr 2—Cecily is a rude little girl. She never says "please" or "thank you" and she laughs at her own loud burps. But the worst thing she does is to make awful faces by sticking out her tongue at adults and other children. One day she is warned that "if you do it too much, then your tongue might get stuck." Sure enough, Cecily sticks out her tongue and it freezes. As if that weren't bad enough, a hovering bird ("a Mockingbeak Tongue-snatcher") builds its nest on it. Cecily is told there is nothing to do but wait until the eggs hatch. After 13 days, the baby birds emerge, and each one turns its head and sticks out its tongue at Cecily. This experience inspires introspection on the child's part, and she begins to make amends to those she offended. After the birds abandon their perch on her tongue, Cecily becomes much more polite. This cautionary tale is told in Seuss-style rhyming couplets. Children will get the gist of the story, but some of the vocabulary might be over their heads. The cartoon drawings are colorful and somewhat loose, but help to illustrate the actions.—Debbie Lewis, Alachua County Library District, FL