Author Study of Mo Willems

1. Author StudyofMo Willems LeJanne Eaton Rebecca schultz Persephoni Moore

2. Caldecott Award Awarded annually by the American Library Association since 1938 "to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children." There is one medal winner and usually a number of honor books. Winners are likely to stay in print indefinitely due to the Caldecott's prestige.

3. Caldecott Award Winner The pictures are hand drawn ink sketches. Taken in Park Slope, and Brooklyn. Shows how friendship is made.

4. Knuffle Bunny Too: The Case of the Mistaken Identity Trixie and dad hurry to school to show off her one of a kind Knuffle Bunny. Surprise! Someone else has the same bunny. The two girls Squabble and the teacher enforces “bunny time outs” which makes the girls have a bad afternoon. At the end of the day they get their Knuffle Bunnies back. But….. Surprise! At 2:30 am Trixie wakes her parents screaming, This in not my Knuffle Bunny! Phone calls are made and a special midnight encounter happens to switch Knuffle Bunnies. That is how Trixie found her first best friend.

5. Author’s Life Born February 11, 1968 Raised in New Orleans, LA Graduated cum laude from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. writes and illustrates from his home in Northampton, Massachusettswhere he lives with his wife and daughter. Ifluenced by Charles Schultz ‘s “Peanuts” Mo Willems

6. Mo Willems Writes and illustrates his own books. Began his career in television. Awarded six Emmys for writing Sesame Street. Created Cartoon Network’s Sheep in the Big City. earned him 3 Caldecott Honors, 2 Geisel Medals, a Geisel Honor, 2 Carnegie Medals, 6 Emmys

7. Knuffle Bunny books (ages 2-6) Cartoons • for Sesame Street and Nickelodeon • for early readers through age 12 • About animals like pigeons, elephants and BUNNY’S! • children’s books, animation, television, theater, and bubble gum card painting Mo Willems Likes to write and illustrate:

8. Fun Facts About the Author and The Knuffle Bunny Series Knuffle Bunny-written for his daughter about her favorite toy. The series only has three books, because it is based on his daughter and her toy and the story is completed (daughter has outgrown the toy) Working on a musical puppet rendition of Knuffle Bunny.

9. Tell us about your next Knuffle Bunny book.I’m currently finishing up the final chapter in the Knuffle Bunny saga, titled Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion. The Trixie character has aged a few more years and makes a fateful discovery and decision while on a trip to visit her Oma and Opa in Holland. It’s a story on a global scale and is technically more complex than the previous volumes. I hope no one ends up disappointed when they see the final product, especially the real Trixie. • When’s it coming out?It’s scheduled to be released at the end of September 2010, six years after the first book was published. • Kids adore your Knuffle Bunny books, so why only write three?It wasn’t my choice. The story itself brought the characters to a sort of final conclusion. I couldn’t cheat the story. While this book is the least factual of the three, it’s the most personal. • Tell us about Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical, commissioned by DC’s Kennedy Center for its 2010 season.I’ve been working on the piece for about a year now, and it’s been great fun. The folks at the KC are a joy to work with and haven’t stopped me yet whenever I’ve come up with a crazy idea. You can expect puppets, cool visual effects, and a dramatic song sung entirely in gibberish. • How involved are you in it?The Kennedy Center was foolish enough to let me write the script and song lyrics, although they did give me a fantastic dramaturg named Megan Alrutz to help me focus on the emotional through line of the story instead of spending all my time figuring out the giant puppet man-eating brassier. • Who’s starring in it?We’ve already had one workshop, and everyone in the cast is top-notch. The trickiest role is that of Trixie, which luckily will be performed by Stephanie D’Abruzzo, an old pal from my Sesame Street and Sheep in the Big City days. Stephanie actually gave Trixie the doll that was the inspiration for Knuffle Bunny, so it’s kind of a cool full-circle thing. • What can we expect in the new year?In addition to Knuffle Bunny Free, there will be some more Elephant and Piggie adventures, including my personal favorite, We Are in a Book! We’re also launching a new series for very young kids featuring a cat named Cat the Cat. And to top it off, this summer will see City Dog, Country Frog, a more serious picture book that I wrote with pictures by the great Jon J. Muth. I’m very excited about the collaboration and hope that both of our audiences will be surprised by the book; pleasantly if possible. Conversation with Mo Willems Mo Willems talks about his third and final KnuffleBunny Book, a musical based on the lovable stuffed animal, and what to expect in 2010.

10. References SLJ Staff. (2009). A conversation with Mo Willems. School Library Journal, Online: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6699633.html. Wikipedia. (2011, November 13). Wikipedia. Retrieved November 17, 2011, from Wikipedia the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mo_Willems Willems, M. (2011, November 3). FAQ's. Retrieved November 19, 2011, from Mo Willems Blog Spot: http://mowillemsfaq.blogspot.com/