Five Questions for Mo Willems

I loved this brief interview with Mo Willems, conducted by Roger Sutton of The Horn Book. It was featured in the "Notes from the Horn Book" March 2009 e-newsletter:

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Five Questions for Mo Willems
Mo Willems has now won the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award twice in a row for his easy-reader books about best friends Elephant and Piggie; There Is a Bird on Your Head! won the honor in 2008 and Are You Ready to Play Outside? in 2009. With his books equally popular with kids, parents, and critics, Mo also has three Caldecott Honor Books to his name, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and the two Knuffle Bunny books. Mo knows books and friends and fun, so I decided to ask him about all three.

1. How is constructing an easy reader different from making a picture book?

Both essentially entail engineering a vehicle to get you from point A to point B.

A picture book is a motorcycle: small, loud, fun, and zippy.

An easy reader is a chartered bus: obliged to carry a rather dull passenger roster of sanctioned curriculum, plus the baggage of an approved, limited vocabulary.

The trick is to design your chartered bus to be as cool and sexy as a motorcycle.

2. What do you think Frog and Toad might make of Elephant and Piggie?

Lobel’s great innovation was to give early reader characters a full emotional life, an innovation that I have merrily attempted to appropriate.

I can only hope that if Frog and Toad were ever to run across Elephant and Piggie they would all head down to the local café to commiserate about the ups and downs of friendship.

3. Who do you think Elephant and Piggie will be when they grow up?

Elephant and Piggie are already grown up. It’s just hard to tell because they’re still willing to learn new things.

4. What is your favorite game to play outside?

Petanque (also known as jeu de boules) is a lovely game involving friends taking turns tossing heavy metal balls into dirt. More a pastime than a sport, it can be played by young or old with matches won utilizing either serious accuracy or casual luck.

I’m such a fan, I built a boules court in my yard and can be found on pleasant afternoons engaged in matches with the neighborhood kids.

5. What has being a parent taught you about playing that you didn't know (or had forgotten)?

From personal experience with my daughter, I can tell you that playing requires an intensity well beyond that of mundane activities like work. To play, you must be completely engaged physically, emotionally, and intellectually at all times just to keep up.

No wonder kids need to go to bed earlier than we do.