Cover Image: Tessie Tames Her Tongue

Tessie Tames Her Tongue

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Member Reviews

Tessie loves to talk, but sometimes she talks too much. With a little help, she learns how to tame her tongue. This was an educational picture book that helps talkative children learn how to use active listening skills. I enjoyed the art and felt Tessie had a lot of very interesting things to say, she just needed to learn when it was appropriate to share them.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

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I loved the illustrations and the story itself. My only complaint is that sometimes, there was too much text on one page. However, I think Tessie Tames Her Tongue will help a lot of talkative children!

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Tessie tames Her Tongue is an adorable little book about a girl who talks entirely too much, making herself both a distraction and at times a nuisance. The artwork is fun and whimsical, and the story is cute and charming.

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Tessie talks and talks... and talk and talks and talks. At breakfast, on the bus, at recess, during class: Tessie just has so much to say, and she loves talking! However, no one else seems to love her talking all the time. With the help of her teacher and support from her parents, Tessie sees the school counselor who helps give her strategies for listening more and talking when appropriate. Tessie uses the strategies for a few weeks, and each week it gets easier to be a better listener.

Tessie Tames Her Tongue is a great social story for the extra-social butterflies we all know and love. We all have that student (or our own child) who needs to share every single thought in their mind whether it's the right time for it or not. Tessie's strategies are easy to replicate, and I appreciate that the book shows that it does take multiple weeks for strategies to really begin working.

Tessie Tames Her Tongue is a good resource to have on hand for teachers and school counselors.

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This was to test a widget for Tessie Tames Her Tongue by Melissa Martin.

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Tessie can't keep quiet even when she knows she should. This book tackles the pitfalls of being overly talkative, and shows kids how to tame their tongues.

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Tessie Tames Her Tongue is 100% funny and 101% chatty...Tessy sure knows how to keep talking about anything and everything, loudly! This book has a great balance between being a story and a learning experience and is great for school age children - particularly those who like to talk a lot.

So you can see that Tessie talks a lot and forgets to listen to others, she will talk to anyone that will listen and even those that won't. She talks in the classroom, when she gets brain freeze from ice cream, on the school bus and in the playground. Tessie soon realises that no one wants to be her friend because she talks all the time. What I love about this book is that Tessie talks to the school counselor who gets down to her level and goes through ideas to tame her tongue. It is encouraging to see book showing positive relationships between Tessie, her teacher and counselor, and also showing Tessie working on herself to improve a situation that wasn't working for her.

The plans for Tessie to Tame her Tongue are by no means easy for her, but the book shows that it realistically takes time, practice and determination.

I was not expecting the information in the back of the book about The TLT Triangle: Thinking, Listening, Talking. TLT is a visual communication tool and the information provided about it is useful and helps you understand the way Tessie was able to work on her communication. This is great for parents and teachers alike and the tips of what to avoid and incorporating these strategies both at home and school makes it is great collaborative resource. I would suggest this book is for ages 7-12 depending on how you want to use it. I can see it being a great book to read in a class session because it would create an opportunity for everyone in the classroom to talk together about it rather than singling someone out.

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Oh boy, to say Tessie has run-on mouth is an understatement. She not only talks non-stop but she is loud and overbearing on top of it, wanting everyone to hear all about every little aspect of her life. Her brother has had enough, her parents are worn out trying to discipline her and her classmates are constantly running away from her incessant babble. Suddenly Tessie realizes she is not much liked and isolated so she must find a way to tame that tongue that is on fire, and wagging, all the time. How can she do it?

She seeks the help from her patient teacher, Mrs. Hardy, who refers her to the school counsellor, Mr. Abel. Together they hatch a successful plan that teaches Tessie to quiet herself, talk way less and listen way more to what other people around her have to say. There is an old saying that says, "God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason." Isn't that the truth?

The back of the book features a segment entitled, "Tips for Helping Talkative Children". It is packed full of wise advice and ideas to aid you if your child is a overachiever when it comes to talking. I highly recommend this book.

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I am sure everyone knows a child like Tessie. She has a habit of continuously talking and is a poor listener. Her teacher tries different techniques with Tessie such as a talking stick, but they don't work as well as she would like. When all her friends run away from her, Tessie asks her teacher for help. Her teacher takes her to the school counselor, who talks to Tessie and listens to what she has to say. They come up with a plan about being a good listener as well as "taming her tongue". The tongue taming tips talk about channeling her energy by deep breathing and scrunching her toes. She meets with the counselor weekly until she is successful. This is a great children's book for primary children, grade levels 1 and up. There are great tips at the end for educators and adults. The author stresses the importance of modeling good listening skills and rejecting the impulse to just quiet a talkative child. Not only would this be a good book to read to children, but parents and educators would also benefit from the story and the tips at the end of the book. A great addition to family, school, classroom and professional libraries.

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A timely and helpful children's book. Tessie has a habit of continuously talking and is a poor listener. Thankfully the adults around her have patience and with the help of her teacher and counselor teach Tessie some lessons on how to cultivate good listening skills. What is great about this children's book for 2nd grade level ages 5-9 are the tips at the end for educators and adults. The author stresses the importance of modeling good listening skills and rejecting the impulse to just quiet a talkative child.

In the book we see the teacher having the patience to help Tessie not just attempt to silence her. An impressive example is presented in these pages of how to channel energy of an expressive child. This should be required reading for EVERY child education teacher.Children like Tessie too often get labeled and tracked as disruptive and not worthy of a teacher's time and effort. I will certainly recommend to all I know and I'm sure if you read it you too will do the same. Book publishes Sept. 1, 2017, just in time for the new school year.

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Tessie may need to tame her tongue, but the author needs to tame their pen. This book started out fun, but quickly got bogged down, long, and boring. It's a book on learning when to talk and when to listen, and how to be a good listener. But it spends so much time trying to make a point, or giving practical examples, that the mind has wandered away from the concept. I like the tips at the back of the book, and I think the story could be presented in a less “talkative” way. Too Long, too wordy. The illustrations are great, and it has a biracial family for those looking for more representation in children’s books.

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We all know and love a kid (or even adult) with a gushing river of things to say but how to we get a word in edgewise or engage the vital lesson of also being a listener? As a parent, educator and bookseller, I have yearned for this exact book. Told with pedagogical humor and wisdom, Tessie discovers she has wonderful things to share alongside tools to tame her tongue!

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Tessie was an excellent read. I immediately knew a large group of children that would benefit from repeated readings of this book. The value of Tessie working through her struggles because they were important to her not because someone told her to was incredibly important. Then the opportunity for her to reach someone else and share her experience was perfect. I truly appreciated the helpful hints at the back. As soon as I finished the book I referred it to our school counselor and put it on our classroom book list for next year.

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As a parent of daughter who is just like the character Tessie in this book I loved what Martin did with her. Tessie comes off really adorable, happy and obviously not a bad child. She has good parents and teaching staff around her who want to help channel that energy into something positive which I like since they aren’t trying to tear down her self-esteem.

The illustrations that accompanied her story fit perfectly and I appreciated the diversity that was woven throughout.

The big seller for me as a parent though was what came after the story. The author provided tips on how to help children in a positive manner as well as educational lessons for caregivers, teachers and kids. This is truly a wonderful book that would not only help children learn the proper time to speak up but also help the adults learn how to encourage children to have a voice but not at the detriment of others. She even broke her tips up into sections specifically for parents and educators.

When I discovered Martin is a child therapist who uses play therapy the book made complete sense. I’m a big proponent of play therapy and have used it with my daughters who are on the autism spectrum. I read this book with my daughters and it helped us to have a more focused discussion on talking and listening. I would highly encourage parents and educators to get this and put the lessons into practice.

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Tessie is a little girl who cannot stop talking! Whether she's interrupting her family or her entire class she has to always dominate the conversation. One of the things I loved about this book was that Tessie's interrupting words were large on the page and all of the other characters spoke in a much smaller font. It showed how much someone who is loud and talkative takes over the airtime in a room. Tessie does tame her tongue through strategies given to her by her teachers and even recognizes the bad habit in another child. There are instructional pages at the end of the book to help parents and teachers work with talkative children. Fun to read and very useful in the classroom or at home.

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