Goops and How to Be Them: A Manual of Manners for Polite Infants [Hardcover]

Gelett Burgess (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2005

"The Goops they lick their fingers,/And the Goops they lick their knives, /They spill their broth on the tablecloth -/Oh, they lead disgusting lives!" The rhymes and drawings in this hilarious introduction to manners for children still amuse and educate 100 years later, providing lessons valuable today and shedding light on turn-of-the-century American mores.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Frank Gelett Burgess was born in Boston in 1866. After getting a degree from MIT in 1887, he moved to California to teach at U. Cal Berkeley. While there, and later in New York and Paris, he wrote many humorous novels, poems and stories, many of which are still in print, including Goops and How to Be Them, More Goops and How Not to Be Them, and The Purple Cow. Burgess died in 1951 in Carmel, CA.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"The Goops they lick their fingers And the Goops they lick their knives, They spill their broth on the tablecloth - Oh, they lead disgusting lives!"

Product Details

• Hardcover: 108 pages
• Publisher: Applewood Books (June 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155709392X
• ISBN-13: 978-1557093929
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #232,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Are you Goop, or are you Not?... It is Terrible to Be them, July 8, 2008

By 

Judy K. Polhemus "Book Collector" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Goops and How to Be Them: A Manual of Manners for Polite Infants (Hardcover)

My volume of "Goops and How to Be Them" is in its thirty-eighth printing in the year of 1928. It comes straight off the shelf in the private school library where I am librarian in the process of weeding the collection and automating the keepers. The Goops is a keeper. (Actually, I've ordered a new copy to replace the old.)

When I first saw how old the book is (but still in usable condition), I thought to remove it until I looked at the product page on Amazon. One, the book is still in print, and two, other reviewers speak fondly of the book! Me, I just met the Goops. How do you do, Goops? The complete subtitle is "A manual of Manners for Polite Infants Inculcating many Juvenile Virtues Both by Precept and Example With Ninety Drawings," written and illustrated by Gelett Burgess.

As Gelett states in the Introduction:

Let me introduce a Race
Void of Beauty and Grace,
Extraordinary Creatures
With a Paucity of Features.

The cover of the new printing shows Goops in color but still with those round, empty-ish heads that can become quite expressive in the hands of the proper illustrator.

Yet you'll learn, if you are Bright,
Politeness from the Impolite.
When you've finished with the Book,...
Ask yourself, upon the Spot,
Are you Goop, or are you Not?
For, although it's Fun to See them
It is Terrible to Be them!

There you have it: a book of manners reverse style. Such topics as Table Manners, Cleanliness, Courtesy, Generosity, Borrowing, Tidiness, Patience, Pets, Clothes, and Quietness are demonstrated, not by what the Goops do, but by what they should do.

Hint about the candy, say you're fond of peppermint;
That's the way to be a Goop--hint, hint, hint!

Or this little poem about Caution in the streets (Reader, be forewarned of danger!)

When you travel in the street,
Are you cautious and discreet?
Do you look about for horses
When your brother crosses?

Try explaining that one to your little ones!

My personal fave:

The Goops are very hard to kill,
So they hang out the Window-sill;
Down the Banisters they slide--
I could do it if I tried;
but when Mother tells me "Don't,"
then, of course I really won't!

Or this one last elegant piece of instruction--

One more rule won't hurt you:
When you practise Virtue,
Do it with a laugh!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book as a child, September 9, 2007

By 

sfmc - See all my reviews

This review is from: Goops and How to Be Them: A Manual of Manners for Polite Infants (Hardcover)

and that was in the 1970s. My grandmother gave me my copy, and my five year old son was enthralled by it when I pulled it out last year (he was in the middle of a strong interest in rules and manners). Some bits are clearly dated (watch out for the horses when crossing the street!) but that just seems to add to the fascination.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful and Fun, August 8, 2007

By 

Christy Herbert (Muskegon, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Goops and How to Be Them: A Manual of Manners for Polite Infants (Hardcover)

We have been reading a few of these poems at dinner time and discussing what makes a Goop and how we can not be a Goop. It is a fun way to discuss manners and practice a few. Don't let the title for infants fool you, it applies to everyone.