and a happy New Year!

I'm signing off for the holidays.

Here's hoping you had a fun 2010 and wishing you even more fun and reading in 2011.

2011 is sure to have some great surprises and cool announcements about books, exhibits, new projects. We're also teaming up with the folks at First Book for the the first ever Friendiversary. 

 

I'll be celebrating the publication of a picture book/chapter book hybrid that I'm very excited about, Hooray for Amanda and Her Alligator!, which tells the adventures of a young girl and her stuffed alligator in 6-1/2 stories.



Elephant and Piggie will be back with a few more adventures as well, including I Broke My Trunk!, Should I Share My Ice Cream?, and Happy Pig Day!



Look for the Spanish version of the first Pigeon book, No dejes que la Paloma conduzca el autobus! Additionally, I'll have work in an anthology, a tribute to a great writer & pal, and some special Knuffle Bunny news! 




You can look forward to some great animated releases from the fine folks at Weston Woods in the coming year, including cartoon versions of Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed (narrated by Trixie Willems), Knuffle Bunny Free (starring the Willems clan) and Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! (with both Jon Scieszka and myself reprising our roles as the Bus Driver and Pigeon along with some awesome 2nd graders).

Knuffle Bunny: a Cautionary Musical will continue touring the country throughout the year.

 I'll be making many appearances over the next 12 months, including stops in New York; Montreal; Northampton, MA; Paris, France; Los Angeles; San Diego; Austin; Dallas; Memphis; Chicago; Minneapolis; New Orleans; Boston; New Jersey; and more. Conventions appearances include SCBWI-Winter, BEA, and ALA.

Of course, this blog is the place to be for all the news and doodles you can stand.

Thanks for all of the support over the last 12 months and I'll see you in the new year!

Fantastic review of Knuffle Bunny Free in NYT, Bestseller and mo' great news!

Today's Sunday New York Times Book Review features a great review of Knuffle Bunny Free.  Among other nice things, they say:

"It is one of Mo Willems's many achievements to be, if not the first, then certainly the best author to present the dread heartbreak of the lost stuffed animal."

and

"Willems has a Pixar-esque knack for speakiing to parents and children at the same time, without over- or under-estimating either."

Yes, that's me blushing.

A great way to end the week.


But, wait, there's more!


Thanks to you, Knuffle Bunny Free holds on to the #10 spot of the NYTimes Bestseller list for week 11!  KBF also returns to the National Indie Bestseller list at #14 and lands at #3 on the PW list!

Here are some other nice things that have been said this week:

The Examiner puts Elephant and Piggie's We Are in a Book! on their top 10 list for the holidays while the Raleigh News & Observer digs deep and recommends Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She was Extinct for their xmas 10, and the fun Quail Ridge Books tells their paper their top 10, which includes City Dog, Country Frog. Richie's Picks blog puts both Cat the Cat Who is That? and City Dog Country Frog on his best of year list.

Finally; Library Media Connection’s Getting Graphic: Best of the Best: 2010 includes We Are in a Book!  It's great to see Elephant and Piggie seen as comics as well as Early Readers!

Huzzah and Phew!

A nice week.


Happy xmas to everyone!

Heavy Metal!

I thought I'd share with you a project I've been working on the last month or so.

As some of you may know, I love metal sculpture.  One of my creative touchstones is Alexander Calder. I spent a good bit of my early career making wire sculptures aping his early style and have recently been involved in having sculpture based on my design produced.



My wife, deciding correctly that I needed a hobby, encouraged me to take some time off and try metal working on my own.  Fortuitously, I met a great metal worker in a nearby factory/turned artist loft who was open to my giving it a go once a week.

As I thought about what I wanted to make, I turned to recreating some of the bent paper pieces I make from time to time.  However, know I wanted to learn how to cut, bend, drill, and weld, I constructed them out of multiple pieces with the process in mind.

I made about 10 or so maquettes, starting with the much too complicated:

Leading to simpler ideas such as this one.

I brought them over to the metalworking studio, which is a Shangri La of old, mechanical machines that can kill you in various ways. Seriously, the equipment is insane.  You can burn yourself , cut something off, be crushed, stabbed, blinded and all sorts of things if you're not careful.  And even if you are, you are inches and seconds away from imminent maiming at any time.

It's beautiful.

So for the past 4 weeks I've take bits of steel and cut them, drilled them, bent them, sanded them, and welded them until I created this:

Then a quick bit of painting, and I've ended up with this:




It's all great fun.  Next year I'll start on a piece based on this:

It will, however, be improved upon, taking in the lessons I've learned during the completion of the previous piece and make use of shadows.  Here is my most recent maquette:

It's all so much fun.

If you have the time, I encourage YOU to try your hand at something for the fun of it.  It doesn't matter what you do; my wife throws pottery, my daughter paints, and I'm doing this for no other reason than it's great fun.  And while I know day to day life can sap you, by managing to find an hour and a half each week to just play I've been energized and had a ball.

Hope you like.

Thanks Kirkus!

So nice to see so many pals along with City Dog Country Frog and We Are in a Book! on the Kirkus reviews best of the year list!

Evening...

I BROKE MY TRUNK!

My advanced copy came in the post recently and I'm very happy with it.

Gerald is careful. Piggie is not.
Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can.
Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to.
Gerald and Piggie are best friends.
In I Broke My Trunk! Gerald tells Piggie the long, crazy story about breaking his trunk. Will Piggie end up with a long, crazy story of her own?


I hope you enjoy reading about how Elephant Gerald broke his trunk when the book is released in February.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Monster

Thanks to you... 10!

Thanks to you Knuffle Bunny Free will spend its 10th week on the NYTimes Bestseller list at #5!  Yippie!

In other great news, City Dog Country Frog has been named a best book of the year by Parents Magazine.



Also, a shout out and thanks for the nice mentions of Knuffle Bunny Free in the Sacramento Bee & Buffalo News ,  The Northshore News praise of We Are in a Book!, and kind reports on City Dog, Country Frog in the Fredericks Star & Troy Record.

Bird portraits...

A few portraits of pals as birds Hil and Kristen on their B'days....

Pigeon ColorForms!

Thanks to @andertoons for the heads up that the Pigeon ColorForms are on the shelves!

I had great fun coming up with the props & things for Pigeon and Duckling to play with.  I hope they make you laugh and are fun to play with.

Here's the official description:

Perfect for play on the go, this kid-sized kit is packed with creative Colorforms. Best of all, the fun packs neatly into a go-anywhere, tot-sized tote. Comes with two play boards, a Fun Pockets reusable pouch and 27 Colorforms pieces. Boards measure 7"x 8.5". For ages 3-8.

I know I can't wait to play with mine!

Here they are on a shelf:

Don't forget you can see all the stuff available based on my characters including books, videos, toys, & games over at Mo Stuff.

Conference Call doodle...

Early Doguerreotype

Waiting for Little Red Riding Hood...

Thanks to you...

Next week's New York Times Bestseller list includes Knuffle Bunny Free (#6, week 9!) along with two former presidential candidates (and we thought pop culture celebrities were trying to take over).




The Indie-bound Bestseller lists include Knuffle Bunny Free at #7 on the Children's Illustrated list and Elephant & Piggie's We Are in a Book! in the Children's Interest list at #13!

A special thanks to the CT Library Consortium for placing Knuffle Bunny Free and Elephant & Piggie's We Are in a Book!, I am Going!, and Can I Play Too? on their best book for 3-8 holiday list and City Dog, Country Frog on their best book for 0-3 holiday list! Yowzer! You can download all the lists here.

Thanks also to the NY Public Library who released their 100 Books to Read and Share, including City Dog, Country Frog. You can download their list here.

And the Dallas paper thinks Knuffle Bunny Free would make a good gift this year. Who are we to disagree?

Vote for City Dog!

No, that's not a stick figure being squashed by a lead-weighted ribbon. That's the logo for James Patterson's ReadKiddoRead.com site which has just started the Kiddo Awards Voting, where you get to choose your favorite book of the past year.

I'm happy to say that CITY DOG, COUNTRY FROG is among the excellent nominees.

So, drop by the site and vote your conscience, especially if it likes books about dogs and frog friendships.

Voting ends February 15th, 2011.

As long as you're there, poke around.  They've got some nice resources for choosing books, new releases (here's their blurb on Cat the Cat), interviews (including myself and some great pals), and more!

Happy Sinterklaas!

And yes, you guessed correctly, that a carrot in the klompen is for Schimmel

Mo Stuff!

The studio has recently received this Holiday Pigeon Doll from the fine folks at YottoY, which is currently available here.  It's soft & ready for wintery lumberjacking.

Speaking of Mo Stuff, I've been getting a few queries about what kinds of things based on my characters are currently available.  Well, look no further than MO STUFF, which lists every book, game, toy, shirt, DVD, posters, etc... based on my work

On the right hand side of the site you can click to search by category or character.

MO STUFF is not a merchant site, it is merely a resource linking to various merchants.  Much of my work is also available at your favorite local stores, so don't forget to patronize them!


Happy Holidays!