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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33607003288266 | Picture Books | WILLEMS | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
That Is Not a Good Idea! is a hilarious, interactive picture book from bestselling author and illustrator Mo Willems, the creator of books like Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, the Knuffle Bunny series, the Elephant and Piggie series, Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs, and many other new classics.
Inspired by the evil villains and innocent damsels of silent movies, Willems tells the tale of a hungry fox who invites a plump goose to dinner. As with the beloved Pigeon books, kids will be calling out the signature refrain and begging for repeated readings. The funny details in the full-color illustrations by three-time Caldecott Honoree Mo Willems will bring nonstop laughter to story time.
Author Notes
Mo Willems was born on February 11, 1968. After graduating from New York University's Tisch School for the Arts, he spent a year traveling around the world drawing a cartoon every day, which were published in the book You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When it Monsoons. For nine seasons, he worked as a writer and animator for PBS' Sesame Street, where he received 6 Emmy Awards for his writing. During this time, he also served as a weekly commentator for BBC Radio and created two animated series, Nickelodeon's The Off-Beats and Cartoon Network's Sheep in the Big City.
While working as head writer for Cartoon Network's Codename: Kids Next Door, he began writing and drawing books for children. He received three Caldecott Honor Awards for Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! in 2004; Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale in 2005; and Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity in 2008. He also created the Elephant and Piggie series for Easy Readers, which were awarded the Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal in 2008 and 2009.
His drawings, wire sculptures, and ceramics have been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums across the nation. Occasionally he serves as the Radio Cartoonist for NPR's All Things Considered. He voices and produces animated cartoons based on his books with Weston Woods studios. The animated Knuffle Bunny was awarded Best Film during the New York International Children's Film Festival in 2008 and received the Andrew Carnegie Medal in 2007. His title Happy Pig Day made Publisher's Weekly Best Seller List for 2011. In 2012 his title Goldilocks and The Three Dinosaurs made The New York Times Best Seller List. In 2013 his titles: That is Not a Good Idea!, Let's Go for a Drive! and I'm a Frog! made the New York Times Best Seller List. In 2014 The Pigeons Need a Bath! and Waiting Is Not Easy! made the New York Times Best Seller List.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-It's not often that a video translation of a picture book actually surpasses the excellence of the source material, but that is the case with this offering from Mo Willems. The depiction of the narrative as if it is an old movie is more apparent, beginning with a baby goose comically struggling to pull down a movie screen. The scratches, black-and-white countdown, and title cards that characterize a silent film follow. It's not until a narrator introduces our stars that the palette turns to color, highlighting the nefarious Hungry Fox and the hapless Plump Goose. Ragtime piano accompanies the action as the two set out on their stroll in the forest, though a gosling warns Goose that the stroll is not a good idea. This version adds an intricately rendered village background with a bridge and additional wide-eyed characters. Fox's menacing nature is enhanced by his evil laugh and leer. The naïveté of big-eyed Goose is conveyed by her exaggeratedly voiced eagerness to accompany the Fox and by her flirtatious laughter. When the players have moved to Wolf's kitchen, he struggles with his pot of water for soup as the warnings of the chicks become more emphatic and their antics more amusing. Postdenouement, as the credits roll, Plump Goose shuts off the projector as her babies line up with spoons to enjoy their soup, now containing a missing ingredient. A supplemental short film by Trixie Willems, the author's daughter, introduces the many people on "Team Mo" who worked together to create this excellent film. VERDICT Visual and audio elements combine perfectly to enhance this deliciously silly story that has a satisfying twist, sure to entertain the most sated audience.-Constance Dickerson, Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library, OH © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Willems, whose Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs also operated on a balance of threat and humor, models this suspenseful picture book after a silent movie. The sequence concerns a dastardly villain, played by a smirking fox in a top hat, and an ingenue, played by a coy duck in a blue headscarf. The fox invites the sweet-looking duck "for a stroll." When she agrees, he asks, "Would you care to continue our walk into the deep, dark woods?" "Sounds fun!" she answers. Each time the duck accepts the fox's invitations, an increasingly alarmed audience of six yellow peeps pops up to shout some version of the title: "That is not a good idea!" This being a Willems vehicle, a sudden twist reveals which character the peeps have been addressing all along. Cinematic conventions, like neatly framed white-on-black intertitles and gauzy iris-eye close-ups of the eyelash-batting heroine, join allusions to classics like "Henny Penny," Rosie's Walk, and perhaps even Mighty Mouse. Trust Willems to blend silents, animation, and comics for a wickedly droll poultry-in-peril yarn. Ages 4-8. Agent: Marcia Wernick, Wernick & Pratt. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.