Dr. Seuss was the master of whimsical rhyming children’s books, with such memorable rhyming titles as Hop on Pop, Fox in Socks, and What Pet Should I Get? That last title follows a similar rhyme scheme in Disney Press’ Nanette’s Baguette. But the author’s similar rhyme pattern is even less surprising when looking at the accolades of Mo Willems, who has won two Theodor Seuss Geisel medals for his previous works.
Nanette’s Baguette is about a young frog whose mom has entrusted her with the big responsibility of bringing home a baguette for the very first time. But like Oprah, Nanette can’t resist the temptation of bread and winds up uncontrollably eating it all before she can get it home. Now she must face the music and fess up to what she did when she gets home.
Told almost entirely in rhyme, the really impressive part about Nanette’s Baguette is that almost every word rhymes with “Nanette” and only a few of them might be new to preschoolers. As a result, they’re sure to laugh a lot at the silly rhymes.
In addition to writing the story, Mo Willems is also credited with “Pictures,” not illustrations. However, he has essentially done both. Creating a three dimensional world made of paper and color for Nanette and her friends to inhabit, the media is described as “Photographed handcrafted cardboard-and-paper constructions digitally integrated with photographed illustrations and additions.” In other words, its not really like anything you’ve ever seen before in a children’s book.
If you’ve got little ones who get the sillies from funny rhymes and pictures, than you’ve found a winner with Nanette’s Baguette. Read it to them with a semi high-pitch nasal voice and you’ll be funnier to them than Jerry Seinfeld was to the 1990’s. And if you’re a muppet fan, you may also be impressed by Mo Willems’s Emmy Winning career as a Sesame Street animator.