Mo Willems

Mo Willems began his career as a writer and animator for television, garnering six Emmy Awards for his writing on Sesame Street, creating Nickelodeon’s The Off-Beats, Cartoon Network’s Sheep in the Big City and head-writing Codename: Kids Next Door.

Often called “the Dr. Seuss of his generation,” Mo is among the most popular book author / illustrators of all time. He is a New York Times #1 Best Selling author and illustrator, and his work has garnered 3 Caldecott Honors, 2 Theodore (Seuss) Geisel Medals, 2 Carnegie Medals, and a Geisel Honor.

Among Mo’s best known creations are the Pigeon (Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!), The Knuffle Bunny trilogy and his Elephant and Piggie books, a series of early readers.

Mo wrote the script and lyrics for Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical, commissioned by the Kennedy Center for its 2010 season, and his drawings and sculptures have been exhibited in numerous museums across the nation. His Red Elephant recently found a permanent home at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.

 

Congrats to Mo, who is the Kennedy Center’s first Education Artist-in-Residence.

Learn More

Watch Mo Willems discuss the importance of doodling on The Today Show

Read Mo Willems and the Art of the Children’s Book from The New York Times

Read  Mo Willems’s Funny Failures from The New Yorker

Read  Mo Willems Has a Message for Parents: He’s Not on Your Side from The New York Times Magazine

ELEPHANT & PIGGIE is a trademark of The Mo Willems Studio, Inc. | Art © Mo Willems | Reproduction without express written consent is prohibited