Who doesn't love Mo Willems? His most (in)famous childrens book character, Pigeon, loves stealing buses. Gerald and Piggie (reminiscent of Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad) do everything from try to fly to dance ballet. The Naked Mole Rat goes around. well. naked. And that's not the only reason why Mo Willems tops the charts as the Coolest Picture Book Author Ever.
Think there's nothing safe online for kids anymore? Check out The Pigeon Presents which provides educational fun and games for kids of all ages including adults who are kids at heart. Dress up Duckling's hot dog. Dress the Naked Mole Rat. Make Elephant and Piggie dance. Print out coloring pages. Laugh.
Yes, that's right. Every year, Mo Willems and his BFF Jon Scieszka, author of "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Fairy Tales," don silly hats and host the national competition where librarians from across the nation dance around in silly outfits with their book carts. I wonder how he puts that on his resume.
Ok, I'm sure Mo would have issues if you put Pigeon on tshirts and tried to sell them or wrote and "official" Pigeon book and tried to publish it on Amazon. BUT in an interview promoting Cat the Cat, Mo stated the reason why his characters are so simple to draw is that he wants kids to copy him and make create their own stories. In fact, if your kids or classroom recreate a Pigeon book or write their own version, send it to him. He posts many of them on his blog. How cool is that?
No, it's not some funny noise Pigeon makes. Pigeon has his own Twitter account, and tweets things like "Almost back at nest. Boy are my wings tired." I always check before leaving the house to make sure he's not out stealing buses and trying to run me over. (He's a crazy driver.) You can follow him @The_Pigeon.
Instead they cover the dining room table in butcher paper and encourage everyone to doodle while dining. Anyone else want to know what Mo doodles at supper time?
The pigeon tweets? No Way! We love the pigeon at our house. Thanks for this!
He is a very cool and well loved author. I love his devotion to fostering creativity in others.
select one here...