This was the book being given as an ARC at ALA in Las Vegas this summer where I MET MO WILLEMS!!!He was the only/author illustrator that I almost hyperventilated :/ by the time I got to the front of the line it was all I had in me to eek out, "I don't know who's a bigger fan, my daughter or I." and he asked how old she was I told him 9, and he said, "well, keep on reading and see who comes out on top." He just gets art, and kids, and human emotion, and all the things that make picture books perfection. Love him.This was super fun, by the way :) This book was set up like an old silent film. One page was all black with white print and then the next page would be a picture to match the previous page. It is a very funny book like most of Mo Willems books. There is a fox who is trying to trick a duck so that he can eat him. The duck plays dumb and the chick butts in every once in a while to try and save the duck. It seems he is trying to warn him about the foxes intentions. While you may think you know how the story will end, I was surprised to find out that the duck follows the fox home and pushes the fox in to his own pot of boiling water. It turns out the duck is the chicks mom and the chick was trying to warn the FOX about the duck. The family then ends the story by eating the fox soup.The chick acts a lot like the pigeon from his infamous Pigeon series, he gets very worked up. The illustrations are a lot like those books as well with simple crayon drawings. I could use this book in a lesson about never trusting strangers. They hear it all the time from their parents and this is a lighter example of the lesson. But I would mention that we must be curious about all strangers and not by people with more threatening exteriors. I could also use this book in a history lesson about the 1920s and 1930s. It shows what motion pictures used to be like, then we could create our own "movie"/books with the same historical feel. We could also write stories with surprise endings.
What do You think about That Is Not A Good Idea! (2013)?
A good book to start teaching students about predictions and plot twists :)
—bmayfield
This is a cute story with a surprise ending.
—mathewle1210
