Not Everyone Is Nice: Helping Children Learn Caution with Strangers

by Frederick Alimonti, Erik de Prince (Illustrator), Ann Tedesco

Kathy is waiting for her mother outside of school when a strange car approaches. The smiling man inside offers to drive Kathy home, suggesting that her mother may be hurt or sick. Just before Kathy is ready to climb in, her mother arrives and the man speeds off. Kathy is confused and hurt that the nice man would leave so quickly.

Later that night, Kathy's parents use examples from nature of pretty but lethal plants and fish to show her that animals and people that look or seem nice may be very dangerous. Not Everyone is Nice teaches children what to do if a stranger approaches and reminds them that looking or acting nice doesn't mean a person is safe.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Parenting

48 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2003

Reviews

[Nicolas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think this works. Having the parents in the book read a story about stranger danger is both confusing and meta.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of many books I am planning to read and review on the topic of stranger danger in order to find the right book to read to my kiddos.
This book is about a girl named Kathy and a stranger who calls himself “Mr. Green” who tries to get Kathy into his car while she waits for her mom to pick her up from school. Her parents use a book about ocean animals, and an example of an anemone and a lion fish to teach Kathy that although the sea creatures LOOK pretty, they’re actually dangerous to the other animals and want to “gobble them up”. They continue by telling Kathy that some people are like that: they seem nice, or pretty, or friendly, but they aren’t.
“Some people may look very nice and act kindly, but that may be to fool you; some of them can hurt you.”
This book seems to be a good resource for this one very specific example of waiting for your parent to pick you up- or the lesson of not getting in the car with strangers- but it is very wordy for my young kiddos (3yo), and I worry that the metaphor may go over their heads.
All in all, I think this is a good book to discuss strangers, and would be best for kindergarten and up ages, but It can by no means be the only book in the “stranger danger” collection.

[Tabitha Hardin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I definitely enjoyed the message behind this book, and how well the writer handled such a deep topic. Stranger danger is a very difficult subject, especially for young children. I've found in my time watching children, that most younger children are very friendly and respond with trust to all adults, whether they are trustworthy adults or not. If I had to include anything more in this book it would be to just reiterate the importance of not trusting strangers unless a trustworthy adult like a parent or teacher is involved.

[Tami Speakman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very important for children to read, children need to know stranger danger. This is a hard and scary topic for parents to handle so it is nice to have a book to help. The example of the sea creatures being dangerous was very smart but saying the creature would "eat" the fish might seem too scary for some children, they might think the bad man might "eat" them. Other than this I would recommend this book to parents of Kindergartner.

[Sydney Holloway · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an easy read and an easy comprehension for young readers! This books' overall message of "stranger danger", not everyone you meet is nice, is greatly portrayed and represented in this book. Giving almost every scenario in which a predator may try and snatch your child! reading this book to your child and explain to them, the importance of not interacting with individuals trying to take advantage.

[Suzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about stranger danger and introduces tactics that someone with bad intentions might employ. It started some good conversations with our boys.

[Lola Fashina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about stranger danger and the importance of it in lives of children and why they need to know this information.

[Steven Lane · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too American for UK children to relate to in my opinion. Chucked it in the bin.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great scenario to encourage kids to be more cautious with strangers.