I'm off/June Schedule

I'm off to a slew of events in NYC for Book Expo America. I'll be signing and chatting both for attendees and the general public in Brooklyn on my own and with the great Jon J Muth (to promote our picture book City Dog, Country Frog).

All of the details are here (scroll down).

While I'm away, let's take a look at June's public appearances.



Saturday June 5, 11am

Reading and Signing
Broadside Books
Northampton, MA

This is my first signing at one of my town's local indies.

Saturday June 26- Monday June 28

American Library Association Convention
Washington, DC

I have a slew of dinners and breakfasts and whatnot in addition to the following signings and appearances for convention attendees (Note: all events will occur on the convention floor or special rooms in the center. Be sure to confirm locations as they may change):

Saturday June 26

1 pm- Signing at the Hyperion Booth


Sunday June 27

10:30 am- Signing at the Harper Collins Booth


4pm- 6th Annual Book Cart Drill Team National Championships!

Hosted by yours truly and former Ambassador for Childrens Literature Jon Scieszka. This event is always nuts (hear about it here) and always packed. Come early for the wackiness.


evening- The Caldecott/Newbury Banquet.

Looking forward to hearing the deserving winners speeches followed by a screening of the animated Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! featuring myself and Jon Scieszka as the Bus Driver.

Monday June, 28

10:30-Carnegie Award Speech

I can't wait to thank the committee for this years' win and hear the winners of the Sibert and Geisel medals do their thing.

Note: these events are open to attendees of the ALA convention.

And that will do it for public appearances for the summer. The rest of the time, I plan to take a break and maybe work on some new books. But look out in the fall when I'll be on the road reading and chatting about Elephant and Piggie and the final Knuffle Bunny book, Knuffle Bunny Free!



PS: Thanks to all who came out to yesterdays Cartoon-a-palooza, especially the family who made the sooper-cool yummy Pigeon-head cake on a sticks...

Local rocks!

This Friday my local paper had an in-depth story about me, my work, my studio, and my new town. The piece is, in my opinion, exceptional and accurate, except that it makes me look much cooler than I actually am. (Trixie even gets a shout-out in a sidebar).

I also recently chatted with local morning DJ Monte Belmonte about films, books, and the craft of animation. Monte is always great fun and funny (check out his archive, he hangs out with the coolest folks like old neighbor John Hodgman or Jesse Schiedlower, an old pal who I haven't seen in years, but who's bar-night-performance-art-spelling-bees in the early 90's led me to meet my wife).

And the local weekly also had a quick shout out and another quick shout out.

Why all of this local love? Mostly because I'm a lucky guy. But, it's no coincidence that this Sunday is:



Cartoon-A-Palooza!

I hope to see you if you're in the area.

Knuffle Funny Exhibit opens in Orlando!

Knuffle Funny: the art and whimsy of Mo Willems opens at the Orlando Museum of Art tomorrow.

It's a pretty full scale retrospective first organized a year and a half ago that is filled with originals from the Knuffle Bunny books, early cartoons, The Pigeon, and other fun stuff. The Orlando version will feature some new sketches from my pop-up Big Frog Can't Fit In! as well.

If you're in the Orlando, FL area, please drop by.



And speaking of Knuffle Bunny:

here's a great interview with Stephanie D'Abruzzo, aka Trixie in the KC production of Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical. The show closes its sold out run this weekend, but will remount with a new cast in the fall for an 18 month tour.

What's that? You want more interviews, including video from the show? Check out PBS' NewsHour blog post on the show including video of myself, Michael Silversher, & Stephanie talking about the show.

2 reviews, 2 stars!

May's reviews over at Kirkus Reviews have just come out & both of my offerings have been greeted with stars!


Of the upcoming Elephant & Piggie adventure, Can I Play Too?, they say:

"Page turns and placement of speech bubbles are customarily flawless, yielding multiple guffaws, but this story also provides much-needed guidance to kids who are navigating the etiquette minefield of friendship among peers of differing abilities. Brilliantly subtle and spot-on."

And City Dog, Country Frog garners its 3rd star, praising the book's:

"... smart and subtle meditation on life, love and loss. The author provides the perfect amount of humor to keep things from getting too heavy, and Muth’s astounding watercolors lend incredible depth, guiding readers easily from emotion to emotion as well as from season to season."

Huzzah! And thanks Kirkus! I hope you enjoy them both when they're released in a few weeks.

CAN I PLAY TOO? preview!

The old mail-bag is filled with fun stuff lately, including my preview copy of Elephant & Piggie's next adventure, Can I Play Too? It's always fun to have the actual, real book in your hands. Somehow it's much different than all of the printouts, proofs, and what have you.

Gerald is careful. Piggie is not. Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can.

Gerald and Piggie are best friends.

In Can I Play Too? Gerald and Piggie meet a new snake friend who wants to join in a game of catch. But don't you need arms to catch?

I like this one. Snake was good fun to draw. I hope you enjoy this one when it comes out in early June.

Available at your favorite local bookseller or library in early June. Pre-order here.

Cartoon-a-palooza!!!

If you're in the Northampton, MA area this Sunday at 2pm, please join me at the fantastic Academy of Music downtown for Cartoon-A-Palooza!, an afternoon of my animated cartoons to benefit the Forbes Library.

It'll be a fun afternoon of Sesame Street, Nickelodeon, & Cartoon Network shorts, plus the full library of animated versions of my books: Leonardo the Terrible Monster, Knuffle Bunny, Knuffle Bunny Too, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and the world premier of The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!

These are seldom seen shorts that have won 2 Carnegie Medals, Best in Show at the NY International Children's Film Fest, multiple ASIFA-East awards, & more!

Tickets are available at the box office, the Library, or on-line. Every penny will go to much needed repairs in the children's and youth section of the library.

After the show, I'll be on hand to sign special edition Elephant and Piggie posters featuring the books of @40 local authors such as Norton Juster, Holly Black, Julius Lester, Tony DiTerlizzi, and Jane Yolen.


Tickets are 11 bucks, 15 at the door.

Please come on by and say Hello.

Bone and Story Starters...

Looking to start a story with your kid this Children's Book Week? Well, drop by the CBC's Story Starters site with ideas from folks like Jon Scieszka, Katherine Patterson, Eoin Colfer, Mary Pope Osborne and more.

Mine is a comic book.

So, click, print, and get writing and drawing!

And if you want music to get you in the mood for story making, try listening to the archives of our local radio's Spare the Rock/ Spoil the Child. Scroll down to the 2010-5-08 archive and at 1hr & 6 minute spot you can hear a quick interview about Cartoon-a-palooza and listen to some favorite real songs of fictional Cat the Cat, Elephant & Piggie, and Knuffle Bunny's Trixie (listen to the whole show, it rocks, literally).

Something to sing about...

Those of you who are regular visitors to this site know how excited I've been about writing and workshopping the Kennedy Center's production of Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical.

Over the past two years we've gone from this:


to this:




I had a fantastic time at the opening last week. The show was all that I could have hoped for and the audiences were wonderfully receptive.

I'll admit to being thrilled to hold the playbill in my hands as we sat down in our seats. One of the great things about each show I saw was that the majority of kids in the audience had brought their favorite stuffed friends to see the show with them.

On a personal note, it was awesome to be able to hold my daughter's hand as "Dad" sang "I Really Really Love You" to "Trixie". A great moment.

Add to that, I was joined by family, friends, and colleagues and I got to take the weirdest publicity shot ever:

Well, that's a great weekend all around.

A few reports and reviews have started to roll in.

This one from PW gives a great background to the show and interview with pal Stephanie D'Abruzzo.

In great review, The Washington Post says:

Adapted by writer and illustrator Mo Willems from his beloved children's book, the production spins a suds-related yarn with such wit and sprightliness that you're half-inclined to swing by the nearest coin-operated front loader and feed it all your quarters, just for the fun of it.

Here's DC Theater Scene's review.

Here's a blogger/fan's review and her more personal take on the show.

Here's another blogger/fan's review and her more personal take on the show (complete with video of a singing daughter).

All of these reviews are fabulous, but none beats this one from the costume designer's kid:



If you didn't get tickets for the sold-out run, don't worry. Starting in October, the musical will be crossing the country for 18 months of tour, followed by a return engagement at the Kennedy Center in 2011.

You can find out more about the touring show when details are finalized by visiting this KC site.

Sooper-special thanks to the crew, the staff, and the cast of this show, all of whom put in the extra effort to make a fabulously weird evening (or afternoon) of gibberish come alive!


A special "Aggle Flaggle Klabble!" to the KC's resident pirate Kim Kovac and dramaturg Megan Alrutz. Let's work together again soon.

Cartoons and Cartoons and Books and Books

I'm just back from a whirl-wind trip to DC for the Knuffle Bunny Musical.

More on that later.

Until then, here's a quick report on my recent visit to Center for Cartoon Studies and Dartmouth by the fine folks at the CCS (keep in mind I was talking to grown ups about craft, this is not really for the kiddies).

I had a great time hanging out the with students, pontificating on the sins of pontification, and finally meeting Jame Sturm.

I left with lots of cool student work and scored a copy of his great new illustrated novel, Market Day, which was very nice.

Here are some images of James at the schools incredibly fun library filled with all of my favorite comics:



This weekend was the ASIFA-East awards, celebrating east coast animation as voted by real east coast animators. I'm thrilled to say that two animated efforts were recognized:

Knuffle Bunny Too, animated by Karen Villarreal won best sponsored film over 2 minutes

and

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, animated by Pete List, won for writing/humor.

I love the fest and was sorry to have missed the fun. Here are the complete list of winners. And here is ASIFA-East President Dave Levy's perspective on the evening.

Karen and Pete are busy working on new films with me as we speak. More on that later, as well.

Speaking of cool stuff that's voted on by cool people. The NY State Reading Association just announced the winners of their Charlotte awards, awards voted on by real kids across the state!

Elephant and Piggie's There is a Bird on Your Head! won in the Primary division, which is a big thrill. Pal Suzanne Collins won as well, but she's been on a streak taking home a Children's Choice Award two nights ago in New York. The Children's Choice awards are like the Charlotte's, only they're voted on by kids from across the nation.

More pals, like neighbor jjk, took home awards which was fun to see (you can check out the list full list here) and the fine folks at First Book were awarded for their great work.

The night was great fun for me because I got to host/roast everyone including presenters Rebecca Stead, Judi Barrett, Jackie Woodson, Libba Bray, Jerry Pinkney, Ambassador Katherine Patterson, and Judy Blume all of whom took my ribbing with great grace.

Another winner, of the heretofore nonexistent 63 annual Goblet of Awesome was Jon Scieszka, who's speech was soooooo long I had to physically remove him from the stage. A scuffle ensued:



Add in hanging out with pals like Gordon Korman, Jeff Kinney, and Suzanne and randomly running into Sheep in the Big City's voice actor James Godwin at a tavern after the even and you've got one crazy night.

Phew!

Happy Book Week!

Now back to work....

GOLD Seals!

The folks at the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio have given the most recent Elephant & Piggie adventure, I Am Going! and this June's City Dog, Country Frog a Gold Seals and they have nice things to say about both City Dog, Country Frog and I Am Going!

Thanks and Huzzah!

Happy Mother's Day...

ASIFA EAST Awards this Sunday, NYC!

Unfortunately, I'll still be in DC on Sunday May 9th at 6pm, but if you're in the NYC area make plans to go the Society of Animators annual awards screening. They'll be celebrating and screening the best of East Coast animation as determined by the members voting.

I have it on good authority that you'll be able to catch both the animated version of Knuffle Bunny Too and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (with awesome animation by Karen Villarreal and Pete List respectively).

The great news is that all of this cool, funky animation is free and most of the filmmakers will be there. The bad news is that this is not for the kiddies. Many of the films can have adult themes and language.

This event is always packed and a great time to see all the talented folks in the biz. I'm sorry to miss it, but hope you enjoy the show.

Here's what they say & the details:

It's that time of the year again, come and join us for our annual celebration of animation! See some of the best Student, Sponsored and Independent animation around, then stick around for the after-show festivities!

Show starts at 6pm, but get there early and beat the crowd - free as always!

The New School
Tischman Auditorim
66 W. 12th St.
(bet. 5th/6th Aves)
NYC

I'm off!

To Washington, DC & NYC for work, theater, signings, speeches, & MC-ing.

My schedule is here.

CITY DOG, COUNTRY FROG gets a(nother) star!

City Dog, Country Frog won't be released for a month, but already it's received it's second starred review, this time from the fine folks at School Library Journal, who say:

Spare, poignant, and ultimately upbeat, this tale depicts the natural cycle of friendship from an enthusiastic first encounter to contented companionship to the heartbreak of loss and eventual emotional renewal. ...Making expert use of color and texture, Muth’s expressive paintings clearly convey the tale’s emotional nuances. This understated picture book allows plenty of room for young readers to interpret the animals’ feelings for themselves and perhaps discuss their own emotions.

Thanks, SLJ!

Jon Muth and I hope you'll enjoy it when it hits the shelves this summer.

(you can read the whole review by clicking here and scrolling down)

This is what happens...

When we invite friends over for dinner, especially if they're cartoonist Hilary Price and Kristen Gottschalk...

[click to enlarge images]

We've drawn on the table (and walls) before. This time we made an added discovery during the candle light dinner:

Crayon wax MELTS!


As the evening progressed, so did the silliness.




(Booze-O the Clown)
(Wine lady)
The Morning after.

Why not have a doodling dinner?

Huzzah!