By: Mo Willems,
on 1/29/2008
The fine folks at Big Wooden Horse are back State Side touring the interactive musical production of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Check out the schedule. Drop on by if you're in the area and let your voice be heard! (Pigeon was last seen in Scotland and visited Brooklyn last year...)
By: Mo Willems,
on 1/1/2008
Hope your holidays were good fun and your head isn’t throbbing too much. The last week or so has been spent busily working on a my new picture book (mo’ info later) and a few Willems holiday traditions, such as Christmas Pizza, the annual visit to a shopping mall, and catching up with pals and their families. Literary hanging out included of time with pals Jackie Woodson, Tony DiTerlizzi, and
By: Mo Willems,
on 11/27/2007
I’ve just returned from the Donnell branch New York Public Library (across the street from MoMa, the one of the best museums named after me) where today the NYPL's “100 Titles for Ready and Sharing” list was announced. Happily, Elephant and Piggie are represented on the list with My Friend is Sad! The event featured a presentation by the always-hip Ashley Bryan. I love how he gets everyone
By: Mo Willems,
on 11/18/2007
Lots of news this weekend, beginning with the opening of the Robert’s Snow Snowflake auctions which start tomorrow. For those of you not in the know, Robert’s Snow has gathered together 29 billion children’s illustrators to paint individual snowflakes to be auctioned off for cancer research. Auction #1 starts on November 19th. My odd little entry has been slated for Auction #3 beginning on
By: Mo Willems,
on 11/6/2007
Thanks to you, Knuffle Bunny Too is still going strong at #6 on the New York Times Bestseller list, marking it’s 8th week on the list. Thanks to the folks over at Publisher’s Weekly, KB2 has been named one of its best books of the year. You can pick up a copy of this month’s Parenting Magazine and see a nice plug for Knuffle Bunny Too and the Knuffle Bunny Plush and there’s a nice review
By: Mo Willems,
on 10/18/2007
The Society of Illustrators Original Art Show begins today, featuring the gold-medal work of pals Mark Newgarden and Megan Montague Cash (some of you may remember how Mark saved my starving-artist butt back in the day). The exhibit features quite a who's who of great illustrations from picture books. Somehow, I've found one of my books (Knuffle Bunny Too) selected for the exhibit (having
By: Mo Willems,
on 9/30/2007
If you’re ever in the Western Hemisphere you really should drop by Santa Rosa, California’s Schulz Museum. I was lucky enough to have a chance to drop by the temple of all things Peanuts during my recent tour. The lovely, enthusiastic museum director Karen Johnson was quite generous with her time guiding me past oodles of incredible original strips, Charles Schulz’s drawing desk, work of
By: Mo Willems,
on 9/13/2007
This Sunday after pal Jon Scieszka and I joke around in the Children’s tent at the Brooklyn Book Fest, I’m scheduled to drop by the PEN table where I’ve been asked to ‘chat about what PEN means to me’. Besides sounding like a sophomore homework assignment, I’m somewhat nervous because I thought PEN was a writing utensil appreciation society. Turns out they fight censorship at home and abroad
By: Mo Willems,
on 9/12/2007
I’ve written about my love for Saul Steinberg. Well, obviously, I’m not the only animator to dig his work as animation legend George Griffin well knows. He’s moderating a cool screening entitled “Saul Steinberg and Animation” at the prestigious Ottawa Animation Festival on September 21st :& 22nd. George asked me to include my most Steinbergian short “Another Bad Day For Philip Jenkins” (which
By: Mo Willems,
on 6/27/2007
I’ve just returned from the Librarian’s conference in DC, which was good fun. Besides various dinners, signings, and celebrations, I was able to catch David Macaulay speak at the opening of his excellent retrospective at the Building Museum and revisit the Steinberg exhibit at the Portrait Gallery that I’d enjoyed months ago at the Morgan. Jon Scieszka and I enjoyed whooping it up at the Drill
By: Mo Willems,
on 6/16/2007
So, 3 years back, I’m walking through the big old convention hall at ALA, when I notice all these guys practicing pushing carts around to music. Hubba-Wha? So, I goes up to them and I says, I says, “Hubba-Wha?” The nice, hip librarians explain to me that they are putting last minute finishing touches on their Precision Drill Cart Routines, in preparation for the first annual Precision Drill
By: Mo Willems,
on 5/23/2007
Book Expo America is a gigantic exposition aimed at independent bookstores, chains, rabid book fans (bookies?). Each year seems bigger than the last; I quake at the thought of New York’s Javits Center jam-packed with every single book on the market desperately vying for attention (which occasionally takes the form of squishy mascots or ersatz half-naked Vikings politely plugging their new
By: Mo Willems,
on 5/9/2007
I’m off to the International Reading Association in Toronto this weekend. While it’s always a fun event, their schedule isn’t really posted, so I thought I give you guys the scoop on my public appearances: Sunday, May 13 at 1pm, Fairmont Royal York, Ontario Room: I’ll be the luncheon speaker at “Institute 12: Focus on Active Literacy Engagement: Children as Thinkers, Constructors and
By: Mo Willems,
on 4/18/2007
MoWillems.com is down for some reason, so I thought I’d mention here that my appearance at Books of Wonder tomorrow evening (Thursday) will (I’m told) feature the debut of the Pigeon, Knuffle Bunny, and Leonardo dolls. I’m excited, because I’ve only seen and played with the proto-types. Drop on by if you can. There’ll be Elephant and Piggie books to read, too.
By: Mo Willems,
on 4/17/2007
The staff of the Marcraft Novelty MFG Corp. dropped by the big Brooklyn Warner Theatre the other day to check out the musical version of DON’T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS! as conceived by the fine (British) folks at Big Wooden Horse Productions. The show was fun and the audience bopped along to the music and gave the Pigeon a hard time. Afterwards, we snuck back stage to try on the costumes.
By: Mo Willems,
on 3/20/2007
I’ll be scooting around the East Coast, reading and signing my brand new Elephant and Piggie Books MY FRIEND IS SAD and TODAY I WILL FLY! during the last week of April. If you’re in the neighborhood, drop by and say ‘hello’. Please check with your local bookseller to confirm the event and any signing policies they might have (such as line numbers, etc) Thursday, April 19, 2007 Time: 5:00pm
By: Mo Willems,
on 3/9/2007
Readings on the 4th Floor is a cool series of events held at PS 107 in Brooklyn to benefit their library. In June, I’ll be moderating a panel entitled: “Making Milk Snort Out of Your Kids Nose: Experts Explain” featuring Codename: Kids Next Door creator Tom Warburton, Sesame Street writer and muppeteer Joey Mazzarino, and kids author big-shot Jon Scieszka. I’ll plug the event on my website come
By: Mo Willems,
on 2/27/2007
In addition to Dick Bruna, Holland can boast the talents of Fiep Westendorp, the talented illustrator best known for her silhouetted heroes Jip and Janneke. Fiep created the illustrations for many other funny characters, most of whom were born during her decades (1948-68) as an illustrator for the weekly women’s page for Het Parool, a national newspaper. Outside of Charles Schulz, Fiep is my
By: Mo Willems,
on 2/26/2007
As you patiently awaited updates, my family zipped over to Holland for a quick visit with my parents and relatives. But the trip wasn’t entirely lekker cups of tea and family chit-chat; I also managed to finagle a visit to Utrecht to meet with Dutch picture book giant Dick Bruna. You probably know Mr. Bruna from his enormously successful character Nijntje, or as she’s known in English,
By: Mo Willems,
on 1/12/2007
Mr. Warburton and I dropped by the Saul Steinberg exhibit at the Morgan Library yesterday.
Amazing stuff! His transition from cartoonist to ARTist lost none of the playful cartoon-ness that made his work glorious.
It’s also fun to see his pencil marks, erasures, etc…
They even had the original of the first Steinberg I’d ever encountered. It was in a 1950’s cartoon anthology that also had work by Ronald Searle, who got me drawing like this:
(circa 1989 or so)
What, no public appearances this month? You won't be at ALA in Philadelphia?!? I was going to hand-deliver a READ poster featuring Gett Down With Your Funky Shelf (and you and Jon) on it. Gett Down With Your Funky Shelf? http://www.flickr.com/photos/8105814@N06/sets/72157600515892008/
I'm totally impressed with how often you successfully spelled "Scieszka."(Oh, wait. You were just copying and pasting, weren't you. Cheaterpants.)
No.I'm a craftsman.A craftsman who insures that he spells Sciezzka individually each time...
Mo - I'm an elementary school librarian in Glassboro NJWe are having a hoot of a time in library classes this week. We're reading all of your Pigeon books and working on contest entry ideas. The Pigeon wants....a little brother! The pigeon wants....to be cool! The Pigeon wants....new clothes! And the Pigeon wants....a friend. My kids are convinced one of them will win, and you will come to
Hi!While looking to purchase your Knuffle Bunny books, here I am. I want to 'THANK YOU!!!' for your site because my 7yo adores your books!!There are very few books that my little girl adores. However, after being read both Knuffle Bunny books by her 1st Grade teacher, she came home and told all about them. Her excitment and admiration of these books came through in her voice as she told me the
HI Mo,I am an Elementary School Librarian in Plymouth, MI. You are our Author of the Month. It has been a great way to start back after the break. The kids and I absolutely love your books. They are so much fun to read aloud. We are really really excited about the contest and we hope you will be visiting our school. Some of our favorites are; ... The Pigeon wants a ... vacation, The Pigeon