About This Book
Reach for this book when your child and a friend or sibling have hit that prickly stage of play where teasing has replaced cooperation. It is perfect for those days when minor bickers escalate into creative insults, and you want to show your child that conflict is a natural, if messy, part of friendship. The story follows a girl and boy heading to a picnic who spend the entire walk trading 'nasty' (yet delightfully rhythmic) rhymes about each other. Through its bouncy verse, the book explores how words can be used as weapons, but also how humor and shared activities can eventually break the tension. It provides a safe space for children aged 3 to 7 to see their own frustrations reflected and normalized. Rather than lecturing on manners, it uses the absurdity of the children's rhymes to help kids laugh at the silliness of their own spats, ultimately ending on a note of reconciliation as the picnic finally begins.
