Percy Listens Up

By: Stuart J. Murphy For happier, healthier, more confident children! Percy likes to play so much he sometimes forgets to listen. With the help of his parents and teachers, Percy learns how to listen to understand directions, learn new things, be safe, and have more fun. Stuart J. Murphy uses visual learning strategies to help young children see and learn to listen—a key social skill. If you like this book, you’ll enjoy these: Stuart J. Murphy's I See I Learn® Series Percy Gets Upset [TABS] Look Inside Author & Illustrator Stuart J. Murphy, author Stuart J. Murphy, author of the award-winning MathStart books (HarperCollins), has developed a new series for Charlesbridge: I See I Learn®. The I See I Learn® books feature simple stories and visual learning strategies to help young children learn important social, emotional, health and safety, and cognitive skills. Stuart, a visual learning specialist, has also served on the authorship teams of a number of major educational programs. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Stuart and his wife, Nancy, live in Boston, Massachusetts, near their children and three grandchildren, Jack, Madeleine, and Camille. Read more about the author. Editorial Reviews BookLoons This cute paperback features Percy and his buddies in a story that focuses on social skills and, more specifically, the art of listening. Percy loves to play and talk, but sometimes he is running and jumping so much that he doesn't listen. One day he misses an assignment his teacher gave the class because he wasn't listening. Then it happens again when Percy doesn't listen to the instructions for playing a new playground game. Obviously, poor Percy had to watch from the sidelines because he doesn't know the rules. After a few episodes like these, Percy learns that he'd better hone his listening skills or he'll be left out of fun activities or have other, more serious, problems. The message here is clear. You need to be a good listener to understand things, to learn new things and to be safe. If you have a child who isn't listening as he or she should, try using this book to underscore the problem and see how it can be remedied. Kutztown University Fall Book Review, November 2012 As an elementary school counselor, Percy Listens Up is helpful in teaching kindergarten, first and second grade students the importance of paying attention and following directions. Percy learns that listening is essential for understanding, learning new skills, being safe and having fun. Young children may benefit from the visual models presented in the book to teach careful listening. Currently, this book has proven to be an effective literature with a small solutions counseling group in an elementary school setting. The students in the group are working on focusing and paying attention in the classroom. This book is particularly appealing to early childhood educators because Murphy uses visual learning to describe the benefits of being a good listener. The book also provides "A Closer Look" - two pages of activities and questions about the text to use as a teaching guide. – Cheryl Anderson, Elementary School Counselor, Kutztown University Alumna MyShelf.com Need some help convincing your child that he or she needs to improve his or her listening skills? Try this delightful picture book that features Percy and his friends who are all residents of "See-and-Learn City". Percy loves to play and talk, but he isn't very interested in always listening when he is at school or out with his family or friends. In this picture book poor Percy misses out on some fun activities, he doesn't fulfill a school assignment and he almost has an accident. Why? It's simple; Percy wasn't listening when he should have been. The book's simple message is a person needs to listen carefully when it comes to understanding instructions or learning new information. Also, to be safe you have to "listen up"! After reading this book with your child, take the opportunity to discuss where Percy went wrong and how he could do better in the future. Hopefully your child will take this story to heart and become a better listener. –Bob Walch School Library Journal Designed to teach school readiness skills, Left, Right, Emma illustrates the difference between left and right while Percy {Listens Up] shows the importance of listening. The stories are realistic but concept-focused, making them more useful for classroom use than for recreational reading. The digital cartoons of the animal characters reinforce the messages well, and are appealing enough to hold children’s attention. –Laura Stanfield, Campbell County Public Library, Ft. Thomas, KY  Downloadables Download the Cover Learn more about this series, visual learning, and Stuart J. Murphy at www.iseeilearn.com. Details Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-58089-468-5 Paperback ISBN: 978-1-58089-469-2 E-book ISBN: 978-1-60734-078-2 PDF Ages: 2-5 Page count: 32 8 x 6 3/4 [/TABS]