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Did You Burp?: How to Ask Questions

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Asking questions may seem like it comes naturally, but it's actually a learned social skill. How do questions and answers work? What makes a good question--and what makes a rude one? Who cares about questions?

This helpful how-to guide teaches kids what a question is, when to ask one, and how to form one. Friendly tips and pointers ("Keep it short!" "Show interest!") help kids keep their questions appropriate and on point. Above all, the book encourages readers to keep on asking questions--the beginning of learning about the world.

32 pages, Hardcover

Published August 6, 2019

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About the author

April Pulley Sayre

106 books105 followers
April Pulley Sayre was an award-winning children’s book author of over 55 natural history books for children and adults. Her read-aloud nonfiction books, known for their lyricism and scientific precision, have been translated into French, Dutch, Japanese, and Korean. She is best known for pioneering literary ways to immerse young readers in natural events via creative storytelling and unusual perspectives.

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5 stars
18 (14%)
4 stars
63 (51%)
3 stars
34 (27%)
2 stars
5 (4%)
1 star
2 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
Profile Image for Dave.
890 reviews5 followers
September 2, 2019
A Frankenstein's monster of a picturebook and a grammar textbook. The whole book is overwritten and the idiom seems wildly inappropriate for the impied audience. (Who is the author writing to anyway? Children that need to learn English grammar, have advanced vocabulary, and are capable of understanding grammatical explanations? Bizarre)

The pictures are fine. My son likes them.

Reviewed for childrenslit.com.
Profile Image for Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book*.
6,164 reviews226 followers
July 4, 2020
Did You Burp? How to ask questions . . . or not! by April Pulley Sayre, illustrated by Leeza Hernandez PICTURE BOOK, NON-FICTION Charlesbridge, 2019. $18. 9781580897372

BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3) - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

There are all sorts of reasons to ask questions: you might be curious about something, or want to learn how to do things, , or maybe you are getting to know someone or starting a conversation. Some questions can be considered impolite when asked by the wrong person, or irrelevant when asked of the wrong person, but questions are how we learn about our world!

What a great primer on questions! April Pulley Sayre has covered all the bases - who what where when and why, plus what isn't a question and even what to say if we don't know the answer to a question asked of us. Leeza Hernandez illustrations are fun - the children are engaging and their questions are great. I can't wait to show this to my ELL teacher, great examples for our English Language Learners.

Lisa Librarian
https://kissthebookjr.blogspot.com/20...
Profile Image for Michele Knott.
4,322 reviews207 followers
November 16, 2019
No, it's not a book about burping, although bodily functions do make an appearance in this book! It's all about questions - asking, answering, when to ask, when not to ask, how to ask, what they sound like, question words.... A great book to use when getting ready for inquiry or at the beginning of the school year!
1 review
October 23, 2024
This celebration of curiosity is an absolute MUST for elementary classrooms or the school library!

In the library, this picture book would be a great introduction to inquiry. For the classroom, aspects of this book are applicable across all elementary grade-levels, from breaking down the basic w's in the younger grades to the nuance of higher order how questions in the upper grades.

While quite wordy, this book can (and arguably, should!) be broken down into chunks to teach to various facets of questioning.

- Teaching your students about a statement versus a question? There's a section for that.

- Discussing appropriate things to ask? There's a section for that (which explores context, too).

- Comparing and contrasting question punctuation in English and Spanish? ¡Hay una sección para eso!

- Exploring a growth mindset and making mistakes with your questions? There's a section for that!

What are you waiting for? Add this to your collection today!
Profile Image for Sandy Brehl.
Author 9 books135 followers
October 28, 2019
Another direct and family-friendly book is DID YOU BURP? How to Ask Questions...Or Not! Written by April Pulley Sayre and illustrated by Leeza Hernandez, the premise in this book is that there are skills involved in asking questions, and questions are important. Endpapers display multiple question words and punctuation symbols. Then Sayre's text launches a lively crew of diverse kids (and a pet gerbil and other random critters) through colorful, oversized, pages blending her questions and coaching with speech-bubbled kid-chat. I particularly appreciated that her voice speaks directly to the reader. She avoids a predictable "what you should or shouldn't ask" approach to explore the nature and value of questions, to acknowledge that asking questions requires bravery and thinking, but leads to a better world for all of us.
Profile Image for Lisa.
2,764 reviews20 followers
April 28, 2020
There are all sorts of reasons to ask questions: you might be curious about something, or want to learn how to do things, , or maybe you are getting to know someone or starting a conversation. Some questions can be considered impolite when asked by the wrong person, or irrelevant when asked of the wrong person, but questions are how we learn about our world!

What a great primer on questions! April Pulley Sayre has covered all the bases - who what where when and why, plus what isn't a question and even what to say if we don't know the answer to a question asked of us. Leeza Hernandez illustrations are fun - the children are engaging and their questions are great. I can't wait to show this to my ELL teacher, great examples for our English Language Learners.

For this and more of my reviews, visit http://kissthebookjr.blogspot.com
Profile Image for Jj.
1,289 reviews38 followers
June 29, 2020
I usually like the author and the illustrator here, but this book was a dud to me. If there is one thing kids generally do not need, it is guidance on asking questions... and in particular, defining for kids what "WHY" means and when to ask it seems ridiculous. If adults actually spend time conversing with children, in various everyday settings and situations, that will be more helpful than anything. Put down the screens and talk! Answer some of those endless questions kids have, and keep the curiosity coming...
Profile Image for Reshamad.
330 reviews13 followers
November 10, 2019
I love when authors get creative with non-fiction. This is a great example of such!
Did you burp? introduces elementary kids to the "art" of asking questions. The author/illustrator talks the readers through questions, types of questions, what kinds there are, what are the opportunities to ask them, what feels appropriate and polite v/s impolite. The tone is overall positive and encouraging to be curious. Lovely art work and engaging for our younger readers.
Profile Image for Susan.
448 reviews75 followers
October 16, 2020
I was expecting more of a surface exploration of questions, but this book goes much deeper with examples of comments and observations that aren't questions (which really bugs me!), explanations of why context matters when asking questions (a kid who asks someone's age can be seen as rude but it's perfectly normal for a doctor to ask), and more. The examples are fun and kid-friendly to keep readers turning pages. Kids and many adults will learn tons from this insightful concept book.
3,323 reviews13 followers
December 17, 2019
Enjoyable and informative, but the layout and all the speech bubbles make it too busy/difficult to do as a class readaloud. I do kind of want to share "What a question is NOT" with my kindergartners, though, because "Today is my grandfather's birthday" and "I'm going to Great Wolf Lodge on the weekend" are not questions. Nor answers to my questions.
41 reviews
March 23, 2022
This book is a very cute and informative book. I would highly recommend when having a lesson about literature or language arts. The book talks about different types of questions, when they are appropriate to be asked, and what does not count as a question. I enjoyed the book because there are very curious questions that children would ask.
82 reviews11 followers
September 14, 2019
The book is a great topic for elementary school children- "How to ask questions..." My kids enjoyed me reading, and then exploring the little thought bubbles and pictures together. It spurred great conversation about questions!
Profile Image for Melissa.
2,774 reviews
November 6, 2019
This is a really good resource for how to communicate. It covers questions vs statements and how to ask a question instead of telling a really long story. It teaches purposes of questions as well as the who, what, where, when, why, and how.
Profile Image for Katie.
978 reviews
November 26, 2019
Getting young children to understand the difference between a question and a comment is a hard concept and this book does a great job of showing the difference. I cannot wait to add this to our school library collection and share this book with our teachers and students.
Profile Image for Amy.
3,785 reviews97 followers
November 30, 2019
A cute book that teaches kids about questions, including what's appropriate to ask in a crowd vs what's not, but I don't think this book actually teaches kids how to construct a question (sentence structure), so not sure that this book sets out to do what it actually intended.
Profile Image for Abby.
334 reviews6 followers
February 15, 2020
Funny, honest, encouraging. Love the digital mixed media art, and the authentic feel of questions that kids ask. Especially good to read with kids who are asking lots of (occasionally inappropriate) questions, or using Q&A time to tell stories instead of asking questions. Ages 3ish-8.
Profile Image for Kim.
2,609 reviews7 followers
March 24, 2020
A wonderful introduction to K-2 on what is a question, how to ask a question using "who" "what "why" "where" etc. and when NOT to ask a question. Best to read aloud in sections when introducing questions to students. Reading all at once is overwhelming. Highly recommend.
Profile Image for Jennifer.
5,258 reviews65 followers
January 28, 2026
This book is incredibly wordy and I would never try to read it to a group. That being said, if you have a super curious kid who needs to learn about manners and appropriateness in conversation, this would be a great one-on-one read to help teach about questions and timing and appropriateness.
Profile Image for Joey Gremillion.
704 reviews12 followers
February 19, 2020
The wee beasties need to learn the appropriateness and structure for asking questions. This is a wonderful book on how and what and WHEN to ask questions. Love the illustrations.
10.8k reviews33 followers
March 31, 2020
An elementary and up nonfiction book about how questions are used in the english language with different examples about how they help us all to communicate.
Profile Image for Liz.
161 reviews3 followers
May 6, 2020
I loved this. What a good way to talk about what questions are with kids.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews