Elbert goes to a party and hears a very bad word. The bad word crawls onto Elbert. When a mallet falls on Elbert's foot the bad word comes out and everyone hears. Elbert learns some very nice words that he uses next time it happens. ( )

This is a wonderful illustration of a little boy who catches a bad word in his mouth and has to get rid of it. He visits a wizard who gives him new strong words to express his feelings instead. The illustrations give a visual to the bad word Elbert catches. The author's website is http://www.audreywood.com/mac_site/cl... It has lots of great information for parents and teachers. ( )

This book is about a little boy named Elbert who happens to find a bad word floating around at a fancy social event. Elbert uses the bad word, gets in trouble and then finds a way to correct his behavior by visiting the gardener who is also a wizard. Through a delicious "good word" cake and another accident, Elbert learns there are better, nicer words to say rather than using a bad word when something goes wrong.

This would be a great book to read to a class whenever a bad word is said or the mention of foul language is brought up. We could have the class create a board of nice words to say when they feel angry, sad, hurt, etc. and then have someone bake a cake with all kinds of sparkly things and some nice words on it.

www.audreywood.com ( )

I liked this book because I can read it to a young audience to teach them about "bad words". It can be a good tool for parents as well. It holds children's interest, I think, because they are eager to find out the "bad word" however that never happens. Also, the book demonstrates the child not only getting in trouble for using the bad word but it gives him an option to change his behavior. This is important when teaching kids what to do or what not to do. The publisher website is http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/about-... I do not like this website because it is not teacher, parent, or kid friendly. It is geared more toward authors and journalists.

The book is a fantasy story about a young boy who was attending a party. Elbert heard a word that he had never heard before. He put the word in his pocket. Elbert had a mallet fall on his toe and the word came out of his mouth. He knew the word was bad when his mother took him to the bathroom and made him wash his mouth out with soap. Elbert did no feel the word was out of his system so he goes to see the wizard. The wizard introduced Elbert to a lot of new words. The wizard put these words in a cake for Elbert to eat. The story continues as Elbert goes back to the party and has the mallet fall on his toe again. The words in the cake came out. The website www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001663.shtm/ contains information about the author and other books she has written. It includes lesson plans, activities, and ideas to complement the books.