That Is Not a Good Idea!

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.)

K-Gr 3--This charmer is lovingly composed as an homage to silent movies and the concept of picture books as the "theater of the lap." Readers will become totally involved as they watch, along with several chicks, a drama unfolding, certain to end in tragedy. A gentlemanly fox and a demure, peasantlike goose meet. The setting is an old European city reminiscent of Budapest or Amsterdam, replete with fin de siecle gas lamps, stone-arch bridges, and wrought-iron terraces, executed in signature matte hues and strong lines (the chicks, though, are bright yellow). Heightened expressions dramatize their meeting, and it is desire at first sight. "What luck! Dinner!" reads the ornate intertitle (white type on a black background) on the following spread. In this way, the well-mannered fox proposes a series of formal invitations, "Would you care to...," leading the goose step-by-step into his "nearby kitchen." It is a study in pacing. Each time the goose accepts, "Hmm...sure!"; "Sounds fun!" again via intertitles, the action stops and the baby geese cry out (and flap) more and more trepidatiously: "That is NOT a good idea!" Young listeners will get involved and cry out, too. The wily goose's actions, defying common sense, arrive at an absolutely unexpected and riotous surprise ending. Children and adults will relish being taken for such a thrilling, suspenseful ride again and again.--Sara Lissa Paulson, The American Sign Language and English Lower School, New York City