Tuesday 24 January 2017

Nanette's Baguette by Mo Willems (Walker Books)

There's something completely irresistible about freshly baked bread, isn't there? Particularly a freshly baked baguette...
A young froggy girl finds this out the first time her mum trusts her to go to the bakery for this tasty treat all on her own. Nanette is off to get a baguette!

She has the money, but needs to stop being distracted by the goings on in her cute little town. There are so many interesting things to see and do but Nanette is focused, Nanette is concentrating hard on that delicious treat - and bringing it safely home to mum.

The kindly baker understands, and picks out the very finest baguette just for Nanette. Perhaps that's the problem, it's just too fine and Nanette just cannot resist a tiny little nibble. Or two. Or three!

Will she make it home with her prized baked goods before it's all gone? We'll let you find out the answer to that one yourself.

Mo Willems' books are always funny and entertaining, and in "Nanette's Baguette" he's adopted a truly amazing art style where Nanette's little town is made from photo-scanned cardboard boxes and models with various characters superimposed into every scene, giving the book a really unique look (and it works so well that Charlotte wanted to make her own little froggy town too!)

My wife definitely didn't like our read-aloud sessions with this book. "Oh god, it sounds terrible!" she squealed from the other room - mostly because Mo chooses to rhyme so many things with "Nanette" that all poor mummy could hear was an endlessly repeated "Et Et Et" at the end of each sentence.

But we liked this a lot. It's fun, unique, original and who doesn't completely identify with Nanette's plight when it comes to just a tiny little nibble of a fresh French Stick!

Charlotte's best bit: All the adorable little buildings, shops and scenery that Mo hand made for this book.

Daddy's favourite bit: A moral tale of temptation and responsibility, made really fun by a hugely talented children's author-illustrator. C'est irresistible!

"Nanette's Baguette" by Mo Willems is out on 2nd February 2017, published by Walker Books (kindly sent for review).