Author of the month: Mo Willems

Mo Willems is a children’s author and an artist. He creates both stories and art for pictures books. His first job was on the television show Sesame Street. He drew pictures for cartoons on the show. He also wrote scripts, which tell the characters what to say. Later he made animated series, or cartoons, for Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network. In 2003, he began his career as a children’s author with his first book, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

EARLY LIFE

Mo Willems loved to draw when he was a child. He started out by copying cartoons. He soon made up his own characters. But he was never sure if they were really good. Adults would tell him his work was good, but he thought they were just being polite. He decided to make funny stories and pictures so he would know if someone really liked them. If they laughed, he knew it was funny.

Even after he went to college, Willems loved to draw. He decided to study animation. Animation is used to make cartoons. The artist makes hundreds of drawings, each a little different from the last. When they are put together on film, the characters move as though they were alive. But it is not easy. One cartoon needs thousands of drawings and can take more than a year to make. Willems made his first short animated film at New York University.

FILM CAREER

Willems showed his film to people. He made another film and showed that one, too. People liked them very much. Then he got a job with the Children’s Television Network. At first, he worked finding information for stories on the shows they made. Soon they asked him to do animation for Sesame Street. He worked there for nine years and won six Emmy Awards for his work. Emmys are given to the people who do the best work in television.

Next Willems made a show for Nickelodeon called The Off-Beats. He also made 16 short films for the character Suzie Kabloozie. Then he created another show called Sheep in the Big City, which ran for two seasons. The following year, he was the head writer for another Cartoon Network series called Codename: Kids Next Door.

AUTHOR OF CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Willems enjoyed animation and had made more than 100 short films. But he was ready for a change. After he and his wife had a daughter, Willems wanted to spend more time with his family. He left television and began writing books for children. His first book, in 2003, was Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

Willems has received many awards for his writing. He won Geisel medals in 2008 and 2009 for his books There is Bird on Your Head! and Are You Ready to Play Outside? He later won Geisel honors four years in a row, from 2011 to 2014.

Let's come to the library and read all his fantasy works!