Olivia Chak
Professor Basile
Humanities 81
Mo Willems, born in February 11, 1968, is an American writer, animator, and children’s books author/illustrator. Willems was raised in the New Orleans and attended the Isidore Newman School. He graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Willems married Cheryl Camp in Brooklyn, New York, in 1997. He now resides with his family in Northampton, Massachusetts.
After Willems graduated from Tisch, he spent a year traveling around the world drawing a cartoon every day, all of which have been published in the book You Can Never Find Rickshaw When it Monsoons. When Willems returned to New York, he kicked off his career as a writer and animator for Sesame Street, where he earned six Emmy Awards for writing his tenure from 1993 to January 2002. During this period he also performed stand-up comedy in NYC and recorded essays for BBC Radio. He later created two animated television series: The Off-Beats for Nickalodeon’s Kablam, and Sheep in the Big City for Cartoon Network. Sheep in the Big City was a success with the critics but ultimately failed to attract sufficient viewership and was canceled after two seasons. Willems later worked as head writer on his first four seasons of Codename: Kids Next Door, created by one of his colleagues from Sheep, Tom Warburton. He left the show to pursue his writing career.
Since 2003, Willems has authored numerous books for young children, many of which have garnered significant critical acclaim. The New York Times Book Review referred to Willems as “the biggest new talent to emerge thus far in the 00’s” and to his pigeon character as “one if this decade’s contributions to the pantheon of great book characters.
Three of Willems’ books have been awarded a Caldecott honor: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (2004), Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale (2005), and Knuffle Bunny Too: a Case of mistaken Identity (2008). Recently he has been creating the Elephant and Piggy books, an early reader series about a friendly elephant and pig. Elephant and Piggie won the Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal in 2008 and 2009, and a Geisel Honor in 2011. In 2010, Willems introduced a new series of books featuring Cat and Cat, also aimed at earlier readers.
Willems books have been translated into a number of languages, spawned animated shorts that have twice been awarded the Carnegie Medal (Knuffle Bunny, 2007 and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, 2010, and developed into theatrical musical productions. His illustrations, wire sculpture, and carved ceramics have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the nation.
Olivia Chak
Professor Basile
Humanities 81
Title: Today I Will Fly!
Author: Mo Willems
The book Today I Will Fly!, written by Mo Willems is a fictional book. Piggie is very optimistic about flying so he says that he will fly. Elephant thinks Piggie is absurd and will never be able to fly, but Piggie still tries despite what Elephant said. When Piggie flew with help from a bird, Elephant wanted to fly too. The age group this book is appropriate for is 5-6. The literacy lesson plan that can come from this book is that children can share how they felt when they first received a new toy. The language in this book is appropriate for the characters. I like the way Willems presented the book with speech bubbles. You would have both Gerald and Piggie showing their emotions and how they felt about flying. In classic Willems style, the characters' expressions and body language carry both stories, with the deceptively simple line art saying far more than the slight, though whimsical, texts. The illustration for this book goes right along with the dialogue that Gerald and Piggie has. It shows the emotions that both characters have very clearly in this book. This book isn’t too wordy and the author caught my attention with this book. The level of detail in this book is great for a kindergarten class because it’s not too hard for them to read and most of the words in the book will be a sight word that the children will learn along the way. The can identify their feeling and that’s what I find so wonderful about this book. I found this book very entertaining and fun to read.
Olivia Chak
Professor Basile
Humanities 81
Title: I Love My New Toy!
Author: Mo Willems
The book I Love My New Toy!, written by Mo Willems is a fictional book. When Gerald accidentally breaks Piggie's new toy, he is by turns ashamed, chagrined, and apologetic. Piggie is mad, sad, and finally embarrassed that a squirrel shows them that the "broken toy" is of the "break-and-snap" variety, so the pals then decide that playing together is more fun than playing with a toy anyway. The age group this book is appropriate for is 5-6. The literacy lesson plan that can come from this book is that children can share how they felt when they first received a new toy. The language in this book is appropriate for the characters. I like the way Willems presented the book with speech bubbles. You would have both Gerald and Piggie showing their emotions and how they felt about the new toy. In classic Willems style, the characters' expressions and body language carry both stories, with the deceptively simple line art saying far more than the slight, though whimsical, texts. The illustration for this book goes right along with the dialogue that Gerald and Piggie has. It shows the emotions that both characters have very clearly in this book. This book isn’t too wordy and the author caught my attention with this book. The level of detail in this book is great for a kindergarten class because it’s not too hard for them to read and most of the words in the book will be a sight word that the children will learn along the way. The can identify their feeling and that’s what I find so wonderful about this book. I found this book very entertaining and fun to read.
Olivia Chak
Professor Basile
Humanities 81
Title: I Will Surprise My Friend!
Author: Mo Willems
The book I Will Surprise My Friend!, written by Mo Willems is a fictional book. Gerald and Piggie watch a squirrel surprise a friend by jumping out from behind a rock. Mischievous Gerald and Piggie then plan together how to "surprise" one another in the same way. They sit behind opposite sides of a large stone and wait to be surprised. And wait. And wait. And worry. Each friend thinks that the other has left. Finally, they surprise each other because neither of them left. The age group this book is appropriate for is 5-6. The literacy lesson plan that can come from this book is that children can share how they felt when they first received a new toy. The language in this book is appropriate for the characters. I like the way Willems presented the book with speech bubbles. You would have both Gerald and Piggie showing their emotions and how they felt about surprising each other. In classic Willems style, the characters' expressions and body language carry both stories, with the deceptively simple line art saying far more than the slight, though whimsical, texts. The illustration for this book goes right along with the dialogue that Gerald and Piggie has. It shows the emotions that both characters have very clearly in this book. This book isn’t too wordy and the author caught my attention with this book. The level of detail in this book is great for a kindergarten class because it’s not too hard for them to read and most of the words in the book will be a sight word that the children will learn along the way. The can identify their feeling and that’s what I find so wonderful about this book. I found this book very entertaining and fun to read.