What If Everybody Did That? is a great tool for parents to encourage their children to be more mindful of their behaviour and think about how it might affect others.

The book comprises a series of scenarios where a child does something thoughtless — as kids are apt to do — such as throwing a soda can out the car window, running down the supermarket aisle with a shopping cart, or needlessly sounding the horn of a car. Taken on its own, the consequence of each offence ranges from mildly inconsiderate to seemingly negligible, but, as the stern adult figure shown reprimanding the children in each scenario reminds us, “What if everybody did that?”

The brilliant part is, instead of answering the question in words, the author has chosen to let the illustrations do the talking, so on the facing pages, we see the consequences being multiplied manifold — to disastrous results. Thus, parents/teachers can use the illustrations to have an open-ended discussion with their children about what it means to be considerate; kids can also look at the illustrations and form their own conclusions.