Customer Reviews
Excellent book- 
2006-08-30
When my son was approaching his 12th birthday, he was forgetting the good manners he had before - everything was a "joke" for him, however, I was afraid he could be offending people, friends, with his behavior. I gave him this book for his birthday. When he read the title "How Rude" he got mad. Later, I saw him taking this book to his room and saw him reading it. Since then, every night he was reading a part. A week later he confessed that this was a great book and he thanked me for it. Any guidance from parents sounds like "nagging" - this book guides teenegers (and pre-teens)giving them good tips. Needless to say, my son improved a lot - he's back to "normal" and we all read this book because is very funny. I highly recommend it.
Hilarious But A Bit Immoral 
2006-08-16
At 465 pages, this nonfiction book is longer than many fiction books. Who knew there was so much to say about manners? But apparently, there is, and Dr. Packer deals with it in a light, amusing way that had me laughing so hard I actually fell on the floor. It also includes some valuable information known to few -i.e. "don't floss your teeth before having sex".
However, some of the opinions expressed in this book are rather immoral. I was somewhat dismayed when Dr. Packer praised the reader who sent in the comment detailing how she and a friend swap answers when doing homework. That is not "efficiency", as Dr. Packer says, that is cheating. And it was dispiriting to see him list the only reason to be nice to "ignorant jerks" as "one of them might turn out to be a Hollywood talent agent". What about compassion? What about politeness? What about an ability to see inside the person? No, the only reason you should be nice to them is for personal gain. That is not a good message to send to teenagers.
Great book! 2006-02-24
Most teenagers will love this book but not all. One grandson and one granddaughter thought it was very helpful, a third grandchild did not like it. It deals with real kids' issues and problems and gives then actual things they can say, as well as what not to say. It even has some very good advice for how teenagers can talk to their parents. Best of all, it has lots of humor in it. We read parts of it aloud with a teenage grandson and we were all laughing. It has good advice for non-teenagers too.
A HIT!!! 2005-12-31
With a bit of trepidation, we gave this book to our 18-year-old niece 3 days before Christmas with the request that she read sections to the whole gang prior to each large family meal (which traditionally lacked basic "please" and "thank you"). Little did we know that these readings would bring loads of laughter, fun and, by the time we sat down to our Christmas meal, impectable manners by young and old (ages 7-70) alike! We strongly recommend this book. In regards to the section on sex, we found it innocuous, brief and appropriate.
How Rude!: The Teenagers' Guide to Good Manners, Proper Behavior, and Not Grossing People Out 2005-07-30
Very thorough and complete
One of the best books out there about appropriate behavior. 2008-06-19
I recommend this book all the time to my clients. It's hysterically funny yet educational. It's well organized and has great little sidebar features.
A favorite line is the last rule listed under "The Ten Commandments of Telephone Etiquette": "Thou shalt not...beep, whistle, and pretend to be an incoming fax."
Stephanie Moulton Sarkis PhD NCC LMHC
Author, ADHD Expert, and Psychotherapist
Comprehensive 2008-03-09
This version appears to include some if not all of the content of the other, smaller volumes by this author. The advantage of this version is it has everything, and the disadvantage is it's 465 pages long and feels heavy, almost like a textbook, or, exactly like a textbook, which may put kids off. Also, the recommendations regarding dating etiquette are pretty tame and tactfully relayed. The graphical layout is playful, relaxed and user-friendly. Certain sections present topics categorically, and other sections use questions from kids regarding how to conduct their affairs, with some interesting questions like: "What do you do when your parents are rude", "How do I address my non-biological parent", or "I have this friend whose mother died... she isn't much fun to be around." I think this book can be very helpful to kids who need ground rules. Actually, I think this book is worth it's weight in gold.
Hard to relate to... 
2007-08-19
I brought this book to use with foster kids who lack social skills and basic socialization knowledge. The kids and I found this book to be unhelpful, hard to navigate, and unrealistic to the lives of the kids. Some of the dialog sounds like the author spend too much time watching the movie Clueless, making it hard to relate to. There are some good aspects of this book, but in the end i was hoping to get more use out of it than I am going to. Buy it used.
Self-Helpless? 2007-03-19
Hmm...
I have read this thing years ago, and while comedy is tossed around in this thing, it's probably not going to be as fantastic as most of the stuff that you typically enjoy... I can't know for sure how you view comedy, but this thing is kind of stale even with it in there.
The thing is written from a kind of simplistic perspective, with such one-d ideas as being positive and simply turning your mind around and thinking the opposite thing... just like when you get upset for example... seem shallow and not a way to truly understand and cope with a psychological problem.
The section on sex is okay... I don't know about other people, but this wasn't too bad, and seemed fairly solid too, although I have seen better.
Finally, this book doesn't just function supposedly as a guide to manners, it's also meant, somewhat, to be a guide to life... I don't know, if
anything like "Turn negativity to positivity" is supposed to be advice on living your life, than I don't think that this will actually be very informative, considering that with the problems in your life, all relying
on positivity will do will be to just become a "feel good" action that won't actually help much with the particular problem, you can't just make these things better just by turning your mind around like that.
So, I don't know. This book has some good parts in it, the sex chapter, which other people were concerned about, isn't terribly bad and is fairly informative, and all in all, this is probably an okay choice, just don't expect it to work as anything other than a way of explaining manners fairly adequately.
How Rude!: The Teenagers" Guide to Good Manners 2007-01-19
This book is a perfect gift for your new teenager. It is written in such an entertaining way that the teenager will want to read it just for the fun of it and yet he/she will be getting valuable advice on how to handle himself/herself in new,unfamiliar social situations. There are many practical guides on handling relationships, which are so important to the teenager.
