When children know the story well they might like to join in when you read the story, perhaps being Mr Panda while you read the parts of the naughty animals who don’t say please. It doesn’t matter if their version is slightly different from the text in the book. Tell the story Conduct a survey to find out the favourite doughnut flavours of your friends. Use this information to create a tally chart or a bar graph. There is another way at looking at this. It makes a great opportunity for discussion with children. I think this book goes deeper than manners! I never imagined in a million years that Mr. Panda would star in his very own series of books! I wrote Please, Mr. Pandaa year after being made redundant from a call centre. In fact, if I hadn’t been made redundant the Please, Mr. Pandaprobably wouldn’t exist. The book wasn’t even called Please, Mr. Pandato begin with. It was called Would You Like a Doughnut?

Make a list of the animals in the story. Can you find out where they live in the wild? Can you plot their locations on a map? Write a prequel to this story. Where did Mr. Panda get the doughnuts from (considering that he doesn’t like them)?

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The pictures are kind of disturbing. Mr. Panda has no affect. He looks bored the whole time he's playing these mind games. I suspect he might be a sociopath. Before you start reading the story, talk about what you can see in the cover illustration. What do children think Mr Panda is holding? Read the story aloud to your child, pausing if children would like to talk about the pictures. Join in Use different coloured playdough to make a tray of doughnuts, talk about the actions you are doing to shape the dough and the different colours while you are making them together. Act out the story Please Mr Panda by Steve Antony is a lovely little story which also helps toddlers and preschool children learn the importance of manners. The illustrations are lovely too. I have two girls who are two and five. My eldest understands and generally has good manners but the youngest is still learning. This book has been great for helping her. The book doesn't actually explain why only the animal that says please gets doughnuts but my 5 year old realised this and each time we read it we explain to our toddler why the rude animals don't get any doughnuts. I think it's starting to help her understand. We've read it a few times now and if you ask her after reading each animal’s reply if they are going to get any doughnuts, she knows if they will or won’t. Imagine that you bought this book at an online bookstore. Could you write a review of it for the shop?

I’ve actually just finished the 5th Mr. Pandapicture book. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of Mr. Panda because he’s such a funny character to develop. He’s grumpy-looking yet really generous. He’s big and gruff yet wears pink frilly aprons. He isn’t perfect, yet he tries his best to teach manners in his own unique (and somewhat unorthodox) way. Plus, he has the best fans. Use animation software to make an animated version of the story. Look at these examples for inspiration:Look, saying "please" and "thank you" are polite, and if the animals had encountered Mr. Panda and his box of doughnuts and said, "Give me one right now!", he might've been justified in refusing. But the fact that he offered, and then reneged on the offer when the response didn't meet his own unknowable threshold for politeness, just makes him look rude. (If this were a book for adults, I would suspect that might be the point. You know, an ironic statement about the people who demand etiquette but don't show much themselves. Sadly, I think this book is just a poorly conceived, preachy children's book.) A sleepy-eyed panda bearing a tray of doughnuts offers them to a variety of animals. However, their eager replies elicit a negative response from Mr Panda. Why should this be? A lively lemur comes up with the right reply. A reminder about good manners is presented with more than a touch of wry humour, especially at the dénouement. A grumpy Mr. Panda offers a series of animals his delicious-looking doughnuts in this picture-book from British author/artist Steve Antony, only to change his mind, when creature after creature doesn't respond as politely as he would like. Finally, an enthusiastic lemur says the magic word, and our ursine hero rewards him with the entire box. Apparently Mr. Panda doesn't like doughnuts... Please Mr Panda has long been a favourite with our younger visitors and was one of our most popular stories at our ABC Stories sessions for pre-school children.