Beset by Regret! Nanette's Baguette by Mo Willems

TODAY IS A DAY NANETTE WON'T SOON FORGET.

NANETTE GETS TO GET THE BAGUETTE!

Nanette, a charmingly bedecked young French frog, has yet to be sent to get her first baguette. Is she ready for the task?

YOU BET!

Nanette is excited to be trusted with the task of buying the day's bread, and she is proud to set forth solo to the bakery.

But her trip is beset with temptation to loiter along the way. There's Mr. Barnette's pooch Antionette to pet, and her friends Georgette, Suzette, and Bret with his clarinet. Will Nanette forget?

"I'VE GOT A BAGUETTE TO GET," SAYS NANETTE TO THE QUARTET.

She arrives at the boulangerie and from Baker Juliette she gets the very best baguette, pays her debt, and is proudly all set for the return trip. Is Nanette's mission accomplie? Not YET!

That baguette is still hot from Juliette's oven, and the aroma of the fresh bread goes straight to Nanette's head.

Soon there is nothing left of it but a few crumbs on Nanette's fingers and face.

Now Nannette frets.

"I ATE THE BAGUETTE!"

NANETTE IS BESET WITH REGRET.

Will Mama ever forget? Will Nanette ever get to get the baguette again?

But back home Mama's understanding embrace is warm and wonderful, in the welcome return of the warm and wonderful Mo Willems, in his latest yet, Nanette's Baguette (Hyperion Books, 2016). Author Willems' wordplay is as wizardly as always, as he makes the most of a selected set of rhyming words, while his wit is as wondrous and his insight as wise as in his other beloved books. Artist Willems sets his story in front of a Frenchified, cardboard-constructed street scene and with charmingly collaged characters (even sneaking in his popular Pigeon) in his own inimitable style, and all ends well with a welcome reset--yet another baguette which Nanette and Mama ate--together.

Let's hope Mo Willems will yet beget more stories of Nanette.

Among Willems' many Caldecott-winning books are Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, and sequels, There Is a Bird On Your Head! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) and companion Elephant and Piggie books, and his masterful treatises on toddlers and parenting, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale and sequels.