Nanette’s Baguette

This is a fabulously funny, endearing book about Nanette who is entrusted, for the first time ever, to go out to a bakery shop and buy a warm wonderful smelling baguette for her mother. First shopping trips are a big responsibility, but Nanette quickly discovers that things can easily go awry.

Willems sets himself an increasingly hilarious task of finding new words to rhyme with ‘Nanette’ and ‘baguette’. As the story goes on, it becomes something that young readers really find funny as they realise how much fun he is having with the rhymes and how ridiculous they become.

The book is a visual delight as well. Willems constructed a French village scene by making 3D models out of cardboard boxes then imposed his cartoon style characters on top of the photographs digitally. This creates a wonderfully unique homemade effect that could easily inspire readers to create their own stories and scenes. As you’d expect from the author of the ‘Pigeon’ books and ‘Elephant and Piggie’, the story doesn’t exactly go as you’d expect and there are several funny twists to the tale that readers will enjoy.

My younger primary classes are particularly obsessed with his peculiar brand of humour and we have a huge amount of fun sharing them together.