A story about good manners for small children. When a dog drops its ball at your feet and says, "Woof woof", what it's really saying is, "Throw my ball, please." Likewise the ducks' "Quack quack" means "Give us some bread, please", the cat's "Miaow miaow" translates as "Give me some milk, please" and the pig's "Oink oink" is to be interpreted as "Scratch my back, please".

The "quack quack", "purr purr" and "oink oink" which follow are, of course, the animals' ways of saying "thank you". This, in any case, is the view of toddler Tom. He thinks the animals are very polite. But he isn't when he demands of Aunty B, "Read me a story."

"Say please," says Aunty B and Tom remembers the good manners the animals taught him and copies them, literally, saying, "Woof woof, quack quack, miaow miaow, oink oink, please", then greets the end of the story with "Woof woof, quack quack, purr purr, oink oink, thank you!" Virginia Miller, who also publishes under the name Virginia Austin, has written "Squeak-A-Lot" which was runner-up for the Mother Goose Award in 1991, and she has since illustrated Martin Waddell's "Sailor Bear" as well as "Kate's Giants", "On Your Potty!", "Get into Bed!" and "Eat Your Dinner!".