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Brandi Ivester, Booksource Collection Development Specialist
2/25/2013 9:50:15 AM
Mo Willems has created another fantastic picture book for young children and teachers alike. This is the story of a fox who invites a goose home for dinner. As the goose and fox progress on their journey, numerous goslings appear and saying, “That is really not a good idea.”
Willems uses great foreshadowing to lead readers to the conclusion that goose is for dinner. Fox asks things like “Would you care to continue our walk into the deep, dark woods?” and “Would you care to look at my soup? A key ingredient is missing.” The somewhat daffy goose eagerly agrees with every suggestion the fox makes. Between each step of their journey an additional gosling emerges and warns, “That really is not a good idea!” With each gosling, an additional “really” is added to the warning, creating a nice pattern. What makes this book fantastic is the twist end. It turns out that it really wasn’t a good idea after all, for the fox. As the goose and goslings enjoy a delicious fox soup, one gosling proclaims, “Well, we did try to warn him.”
I had the opportunity to try this book out on a group of preschoolers, and it was a big hit. The text is entirely in dialog, so doing the voice of a fox, a goose, and the goslings helps differentiate the characters. The layout of the pages is reminiscent of silent movies, and while the preschoolers didn’t pick up on the connection, they definitely were more aware of the importance the words have on the story. The best part is the twist ending, making this book perfect for prediction. We stopped after each step and the students shared with a partner what they thought was going to happen. When the surprise is revealed, we discussed as a class the things that made us think the goose was going to end up in the pot. I look forward to sharing this one with many more students!
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