posted on 28 Sep 2018

How Rude! By Clare Helen Welsh and Olivier Tallec

Smiling Duck is clearly very pleased to arrive at his friend Dot’s house but  when she opens her front door, he doesn’t respond to her friendly greeting, pushes her aside and then rushes into the house. And so the shape of this simple story about manners begins with her indignant refrain “How rude!” – a phrase which will be eagerly seized upon by any young reader with a sense of how to behave well.

Duck is very excited to see that a sumptuous, beautifully arranged  tea party is waiting inside the house and just can’t be bothered to hang up his hat and scarf - ‘How rude!’ He even puts his feet up on the table and then rudely demands a sandwich filling which isn’t on offer. Outlandish behaviour, I am sure you will agree. But it gets even worse because he tries the ham, cheese and cucumber sandwiches, spits them out and throws some on the floor, but then gobbles them up anyway. Dot is horrified as we can see by her increasingly wide eyes and disapproving expression. She continues to play the gracious host as he proceeds to drink from the vase of flowers and consistently forgets to say please (possibly an allusion to the tiger in ‘The Tiger who came to Tea’)?

At last Dot can stand no more – there’s a very scribbly black cloud over her red, cross face!  The badly behaved duck is by now completely out of control as he reaches out to scoff the lovely looking cherry-topped iced cake exclaiming “Mine! Mine! MINE!”.  But Dot has decided that enough is enough and so teaches him a lesson by pretending to cut him a piece and then eating up all of the cake herself!

She might feel temporarily better for doing this, but should rudeness be matched by more rudeness? I can imagine the look of disbelief on the faces of young readers when she does this. As Dot and Duck look around at all the mess they have caused, they realise that they can make things better by saying sorry to one another. All is well once the apologies are out of the way and the last two double page spreads show the two of them facing one another, smiling broadly and being polite. Even on the last page when Duck burps, he remembers to say “Excuse me!” and the message is that it is much better to consider one another’s feelings, share and take turns and that even if sometimes you forget to be polite, saying sorry can make everything ok.

I enjoyed reading this story with its spare repetitive text by Clare Helen Welsh that works perfectly with the lively cartoonish illustrations by Olivier Tallec. It is exactly the right length to keep under five readers fully engaged with potential for plenty of follow up discussion.  Navigating etiquette rules is always difficult for young children to master. At times their outspoken frankness is rewarded by fond smiles and cuddles, but if they step over the line with some people and in certain situations, they can be told off for being ‘cheeky’ or ‘rude’. All very confusing, so this funny picture book is to be welcomed, because it just might help to sort it all out.

Karen Argent

September 2018

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