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March is looking to be a great fun Month with lots of Theater all over the country, appearances in Amherst, MA and, for the first time, New Zealand! But first a quick look at last month: RECAP! What a fun month February was; starting out with a surprise call from the Geisel Committee informing me that Elephant & Piggie's WAITING IS NOT EASY! had garnered a Geisel Honor!  This was a

COMIX! I'm on sabbatical for the year.  While I will be making various appearances in Europe and beyond, mostly I'll be spending time at the home base in Paris, France drawing and doodling.   You can check out my experiments over at Universal U-Click for a comic-strip-doodle-thingie called PARIS DOODLES . The strip runs drawings, dining room dinner doodles, and photos on weekdays.

 COMIX! I'm on sabbatical for the year.  While I will be making various appearances in Europe and beyond, mostly I'll be spending time at the home base in Paris, France drawing and doodling.   You can check out my experiments over at Universal U-Click for a comic-strip-doodle-thingie called PARIS DOODLES . The strip runs drawings, dining room dinner doodles, and photos on weekdays.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the appearances in New York (including pal Julianne Moore who read an Elephant & Piggie book with me) to celebrate the Pigeon's 10th Birthday. It was also great to bump into, play petanque with, then do an appearance with Herve Tullet in the NYC. The workshop for Elephant and Piggie's WE ARE IN A PLAY! at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC was great

April will be a very busy month for me.  I will be traveling, work-shopping Elephant and Piggie's We Are in a Play!, celebrating the Pigeon's 10th Birthday (and my 10th year in publishing), and touring a brand new book with appearances, talks, and even a fancy black-tie gathering. Here is my public appearances schedule (please make sure to check with the venues regarding entrance and signing

On Tuesday, I visited the Peck School in Holyoke, MA as part of the Friendiversary Celebrations that give a book to every 2nd grader in a participating Title 1 school in New Orleans, Springfield, MA, & Holyoke thanks to the help of First Book. A great time was had reading and answering questions.  Even Mayor Alex Morse dropped by (he had attended Peck school when he was a kid). The full

Pal Rick Riordan and I will be keynote speakers in April for the IRA convention in San Antonio . In anticipation of our talks, Reading Today Magazine has an interview that we conducted with each other.  It's always fun to chat with Rick, even when we're not being recorded.  I hope you enjoy the conversation.

Thanks to the fine folks at Publishers Weekly for their starred review of the upcoming upcoming THAT IS NOT A GOOD IDEA! They say: "Trust Willems to blend silents, animation, and comics for a wickedly droll poultry-in-peril yarn." The whole review is here. Yay!  Also, Indie booksellers put out a list of books their very excited about for every season, and I'm happy to say that

I'm off for a quick visit to NYC, LA, & SF. I hope you'll drop by one of the events if you're in the neighborhood!  And don't forget to Tune into West Coast Live on Saturday Feb. 9th (or come by the show in San Francisco and see it live).  I'll be talking about the comedy show and mo'. Pal, Dave Barry will also be doing his thing.  It should be fun. (Note the San Francisco Sketchfest show,

  The vote in Ohio is important for kids, too.  Every year, school kids from all over Ohio get to nominate, then vote on their favorite books of the year.  The book with the most votes in each catagory gets a Buckeye Award. I'm thrilled to report that this year the K-2 kids voted Elephant and Piggie's WE ARE IN A BOOK! as their fave. There's nothing better than having your real

San Francisco Sketchfest is a huge event that for over a decade has featured truely great comics doing all sorts of improv, interviews, sketch, stand-up, screenings, and now storytime. Yup. Joining the SF Sketchfest lineup this year will be a show entitled Don’t Let The Comedians Do Story Time! that will feature some of your favorite comics turning my books into sketches. It should be a

Thanks to you, DON'T LET THE PIGEON FINISH THIS ACTIVITY BOOK! debuts this week on the Indie Bestseller list at #11 in the Children's Interest catagory.  It is, folks seem to think, the first activity book to break into the list.  Very exciting for everyone  on the team! Also, Elephant and Piggie are at #7 on the series list! Now, a look back!Here's a few pictures from last weeks

I recently joined a group of "celebrity" judges (including pals & neighbors Tony DiTerlizzi and Jarret Kroscoczka) to look at a slew of awesome stories written by kids from across the country for PBS KIDS. It was fun to read what kids come up with, although pretty tough to choose (which is the point and drawback of 'judging'). PBS KIDS has announced the national winners.  You can see the

If you're in NYC on Sept. 20th and interested in a fancy dinner party filled with picture book greats all to support a wonderful cause, then I've got the fancy event for you: Hosted by Eric and Bobbie Carle, Norton Juster, Jules and Kate Feiffer this year's Carle Honors Event is shaping up to be a great evening featuring a guest list including a who's who of picture book folk, plus a rock

The animated version of EDWINA THE DINOSAUR WHO DIDN'T KNOW SHE WAS EXTINCT has been released for the School and Library market by the fine folks at Weston Woods. Excellently narrated by Cher Willems with myself as Reginald Von Hoobie Doobie, the film is one of my favorites due to the hilarious animation of Pete List and the Esquivel-esque musical stylings of Scotty Huff. The DVD also comes

It's been a crazy month of pals, work, appearances, family, & holiday. ALA was great fun. I always enjoy seeing old pals, authors, editors, librarians, and their ilk on the floor.  This years Caldecott & Newbery speeches were excellent and this years Geisel Medalist, Josh Schneider, knocked it out of the park. I was honored to receive my honor for Elephant & Piggie's I BROKE MY TRUNK! and to be

I usually take the summer off, but this July 21 st I'm happy to be visiting the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst MA for the World premier Screening of KNUFFLE BUNNY FREE and EDWINA THE DINOSAUR THAT DIDN'T KNOW SHE WAS EXTINCT with Q&A and Book Signing. The festivities begin at 10:30 am. I hope you'll drop by if you're in the area.  I'm really happy with both films for different

Thanks to you THE DUCKLING GETS A COOKIE?! spends its 9th week on the New York Times Bestseller List at #6!  Thanks you! I also got a chance to thank some of you in person last week at Book Expo America in NYC.  I had a good, although very busy, time.  It was nice to see various librarians, booksellers, editors, agents, & blogger pals in addition to catching up with the likes of Jon

To Las Vegas for the National Cartoonist Society Reubens! Looking forward to having a few root beers with my cartooning pals. See ya on the flip side... Read the rest of this post

Last week, good pal and Rhymes with Orange cartoonist Hilary Price and I drove over to coastal Mass to visit the great illustrator and drawing advocate Ed Emberley and his family.  Ed's career has had several iterations, from drawing highly complex images to his revolutionary and really, really fun drawing system work to digital illustration and collaborations with his daughter Rebecca. The

 What happens when you combine the indie-hipster vibe of the Center for Cartoon Studies and the establishment of the National Cartoonist Society to work on a project together? Something to make you cry. The Cartoon Crier is a really amazing 36 page comic featuring morose strips by an astonishing array of inidie and traditional cartoonists.  You got your Blondie,  Cul de Sac, Rhymes with

Last week was NYC's animation society ASIFA East's 43rd annual film festival. The evening was packed with multiple generations of east coast animators, including several of my first employers back in the early 90's.  The films were, as always, a weird, fun mishmash of styles and approaches and I'm happy to report that the animated DON'T LET THE PIGEON STAY UP LATE! won 2nd place for commissioned

Myself and my fellow guest judges and pals have done their voting for this year's Doodle for Google Contest. Now it's your turn!  The finalists are waiting for your vote.   Scholarship money for the kids and their schools will be awarded to the winners in a few weeks in New York, presented by the Google and judges. Good luck to the kids who've made it this far.  Looking forward to meeting

DON'T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS!, which started out as a sketchbook for clients and pals, was first published as a picture book 9 years ago on this date. The original sketchbook circa 1998 The book, as published (The sticker came later). Thanks to you, over the past 3,287 days, The Pigeon has been thwarted in many adventures and languages in books, films, toys, apps, and mo'.

The staff and pals of the Eric Carle Museum have taken it upon themselves to insure that my large sculpture, The Red Elephant, remains cozy for the rest of the New England spring by "Yarn Bombing" him: Besides being great fun, The Red Elephant's new look is in service of promoting pals Mac Barnett & Jon Klassen's new book Extra Yarn. This is the first of what I hope will be a series of