Nanas with no Manners product reviews

Grandmothers can be called by lots of different names in Aotearoa, depending on whether the family is Maori, or Pakeha, or maybe came from overseas recently and has chosen a different name to remind the grandchildren of their origins. Nana, Granny, Taua, Koka, Oma - lots to choose from, but they all mean basically the same thing. A grandmother is a polite, practical, conservatively dressed, loving role-model for her grandchildren. She loves to babysit and never criticizes....

Except that the nanas in this book are nothing like that! They are feisty, rude, pushy, colourful, demanding, and totally lovable in a back-to-front kind of way. The only way they conform is in the way they make children smile. Many of the graphics include children standing watching with admiration and big smiles on their faces as the nanas break all the rules. They use their cellphones at the table, fart without checking first to see if anyone is standing close by, lick their plates clean, hold up the traffic as they ride their mobility scooters in the middle of the road, wear clothes that are completely age-inappropriate - in fact, they are as antisocial as it is possible to be!

Miss Five and Mr Four were not the only ones to have fits of giggles as they listened to the story. Their parents were almost as bad, trying to imagine their own parents behaving like this. The fart jokes were a hit with Mr Four while Miss Five could not decide whether to be horrified or delighted. She could not believe that the nanas would swear instead of saying thank you, and was relieved that they had learned their lesson by the end of the book.

The detail in the graphics is perfect - not too much so the young readers are not overwhelmed, but sufficiently busy to ensure that something new is spotted each time the story is read. It was rather disconcerting to see Nana McCartan sitting in a supermarket trolley on top of her shopping. If you looked closely, you could see the word "Nachos" written on all the packs. We hoped she did not fart too much while she was in there!

The hilarious illustrations, simple vocabulary, and predictable rhyming structure made this an excellent book for early readers. Miss Five quickly picked up the momentum of the story and pointed out the words that she could read; Mr Four was able to finish some of the sentences once he had heard the story two or three times. Altogether this was a wonderful book for children of this age, and one that will continue to cause much laughter as they look through the pictures again.

My children were quite excited to read this story as their nana is always very polite and always makes them use their manners, so they thought this could be quite a funny story. The front cover of the book is bright and shows the three nanas at a table, one is being rude playing with her food, another is talking on their phone, and the last is taking selfies, we opened the book and started to read about the Nanas with No Manners.

We are introduced to the nanas, one who wears a bikini, a noisy eater, and a nana that can't contain her farts, the children thought the idea of a nana farting was hilarious. As we read further, we find out that these nanas will only eat nachos with cheese, and when the town runs out of this meal they are not impressed and decide to travel to find some. Ending up in a town they had a smorgasbord of delicious looking food at their disposal, but they still were not happy, the children thought the way the nanas acted was incredibly rude and showed that they were ungrateful, a nice lady directed them to where they could find the meal, she gave the ladies a warning however they were rude, not using their manners and not fully listening to her - this led to trouble.

This book has a humerous way of showing children that manners are important, especially if you are after something and in need of some help from others. The illustrations are vibrant and equally as hilarious as the storyline, which flows easily through from start to finish, my youngest son particularly liked the image of the nanas in the grocery trolleys. I would recommend this book to anyone with young children that may need a lesson on why manners are important in our everyday life.