That Is Not a Good Idea!

How Ideas Become Good Ideas: A Note from Mo The first step to figuring out a story is your characters. And with each book, I go through hundreds of sketches that aren’t used. Here are a few that I did in the early stages of That Is Not a Good Idea! for Hungry Fox, Plump Goose, and the Baby Geese. Purple Fox: After I have a sense of a story and their characters, I start to make test sketches. It's my hope that the technique (the brushes, pencils, markers, or crayons) will give me an insight into who the characters really are. Baby Geese: This process goes on for a while (sometimes weeks, sometimes months). Even the character stylings that don't work help. The covering-the-eye pose from this test was used in the final book, even though the characters look completely different. Goodwolf Sketch: We use butcher-paper as our tablecloth, so that our family can doodle every night after dinner. (You can see some examples on the Mo Willems Doodles blog.) All of the characters seem to have taken over this night's dinner (I saved the drawing for later reference). Test Background: Once the characters started to come into focus, it was time to go through the same process with the backgrounds... From Booklist If anyone is going to pull off a picture book built on the conventions of old-time silent movies—exaggerated facial expressions, telling body language, and, of course, blacked-out dialogue pages cut into the story—it would be Willems. The setup is classic dastardly villain and innocent naïf, as a three-piece-suited, top-hatted, grinning fox catches the eye of a sweet, old babushka-wearing duck. Dinner! He asks if she’d like to go for a stroll in the deep, dark forest to his kitchen, where he’s making a pot of soup that’s missing only one last ingredient. At each step of the way, an increasingly frantic litter of chicks warns That is really, really, really, really not a good idea! By the time the story reaches its peak, you can practically hear the Wurlitzer throbbing, and kids will be squirming with tense glee, primed for a classic Willems gotcha that turns the whole thing on its head for the poor, unsuspecting fox. A quick, crowd-pleasing lark that should be a hit at group storytime. High-Demand Backstory: Willems, Willems Willems! And as much as everyone loves Elephant and Piggie, fans will be pleased to have a new offering in a picture-book format. Preschool-Grade 1. --Ian Chipman “This charmer is lovingly composed as an homage to silent movies and the concept of picture books as the ‘theater of the lap.’ Children and adults will relish being taken for such a thrilling, suspenseful ride again and again.” — School Library Journal (starred review) “Trust Willems to blend silents, animation, and comics for a wickedly droll poultry-in-peril yarn.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “There’s a trifecta of reading possibilities here: an energetic storytime, a read-alone, and a raucous readers’ theater.” — Horn Book (starred review) “A new offering of guaranteed laughs from three-time Caldecott-honoree Willems….Pure glee.” — Kirkus Reviews “Kids will clamor for a re-viewing and be pleased to note that the book cleverly sets itself up for the story going either way. This is also a delight to voice, with the goslings particularly enjoyable to act out.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books Praise for GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE DINOSAURS: “Willems has delivered his very best work so far-this is a tasty treat for kids already fluent with the original, and for any fan of funny, and everybody will want to read it again and again and again.” — Booklist (starred review) Praise for GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE DINOSAURS: “With a sense of irony (and humor) as sharp as this dinosaur trio’s talons, Willems’s retelling is a sure bet for audiences who have moved beyond more gently witty fare.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) Praise for GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE DINOSAURS: “This is pure Mo Willems, from the many visual gags in the cleanly drawn illustrations and the tight, tongue-in-cheek story line to the endpapers .... Readers of all ages will find much to chuckle about in this wacky retelling.” — School Library Journal (starred review) Praise for GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE DINOSAURS: “On every page, the text winks broadly at readers, first pointing to and then playing with conventions of folklore, narrative voice, literary foreshadowing, and plain old common sense.” — Horn Book (starred review) Praise for HOORAY FOR AMANDA AND HER ALLIGATOR: “Amusing and heartwarming, it will leave Willems’s fans totally satisfied.” — School Library Journal (starred review) Praise for HOORAY FOR AMANDA AND HER ALLIGATOR: “Six and a half short stories make up this expertly paced page-turner about a girl and her toy alligator, laced with the kid-centric humor on which Willems has built his career. ” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) Praise for HOORAY FOR AMANDA AND HER ALLIGATOR: “The pacing, word volume and wide trim size are all inviting and encouraging, bringing readers close to the cozy friendship between Amanda and her impatient stuffed friend. ” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Praise for HOORAY FOR AMANDA AND HER ALLIGATOR!: “Willems knows how to keep things interesting and his audience engaged.” — Horn Book (starred review) One day, a very hungry fox meets a very plump goose. A dinner invitation is offered. Will dinner go as planned? Or do the dinner plans involve a secret ingredient . . . ? (Don't forget to listen to the baby geese!) From the brilliant mind of Mo Willems comes a surprising lesson about listening to your inner gosling. Mo Willems knows a Good Idea when he sees one. A three-time Caldecott Honor winner (for Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! , Knuffle Bunny , and Knuffle Bunny Too ), he also won two Geisel Medals and two Geisel Honors for his Elephant and Piggie books. His books are perennial New York Times bestsellers, including Knuffle Bunny Free , Hooray for Amanda & Her Alligator! , and the Cat the Cat series. Before he turned to making picture books, Mo was a writer and animator on Sesame Street , where he won six Emmys. Mo lives with his family in Massachusetts. Read more