Nanette is a girl after my own heart, or should I say a
frogette after my own heart. Plus, Mo Willems uses a technique called homoioteleuton also known as “near
rhyme”. The technique was first identified by Aristotle in his ancient Greek
treatise on the art of persuasion, called Rhetoric.
Not interesting enough? The book is funny and I had to add my voice to any
positive buzz out there about this book.
Nanette is a young frog who is sent, for the first time, on
an errand to purchase a baguette presumably for her family’s dinner. It is the
first time she has been entrusted with such a big responsibility. She wants to do a good job. She is briefly
distracted by her neighbor’s pet, but quickly re-focuses her attention on her
primary mission. Nanette arrives at the bakery. Baker Juliette, knowing that it
is Nanette’s first time to be sent on such an important errand, gives her the
best baguette she has. You will have to
read the book to find out what happens, but I’ll give you a hint, she does
exactly what I would do with a yummy, soft, warm baguette and a long walk home.
If Nanette’s Baguette, a picture book written and illustrated by Mo Willems, has a lesson, it’s that baguettes are yummy and a frog is only human. The humor
of the story revolves around our own weaknesses in the face of temptation. The
story, however, doesn’t need a lesson. It just makes you laugh. If that weren’t
enough, the jacket of the book delineates just how the illustrations were
actually a combination of cardboard constructions and drawings. Pretty cool, I think. See the video below.
My students loved the story. They laughed out loud and they
kept insisting that Nanette was French, a conclusion I felt was quite astute
for second grade Spanish speaking English language learners!
Read more picture books!
