Best & Worst of Mo Willems

Each Wednesday I am featuring a guest post by a book blogger detailing which books they think are the “best” and “worst” by the author of their choice. Visit the series page for more information about the guest bloggers, the featured authors, and the sign-up form.

Please welcome today’s guest blogger:  Danielle from There’s a Book, who will be discussing the best and worst of Mo Willems.

First of all, thank you so much to Alyce for letting me stop by today! I’ve been a bit flakey on her and her patience is overwhelmingly appreciated! I had intended on talking about Lisa McMann today, but after reviewing some of the past Best & Worst posts I found something lacking…picture books! And who better to pick on than the king of recent picture books…Mo Willems!

To those not familiar with Mo Willems & his body of work I have to say that not only are you missing out, but also ask where you’ve been? From his hit Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus to the very popular Elephant & Piggie series he has close to sixty books that have been published within the last ten or so years.

Picking a few to discuss was next to impossible especially since my family and my two kiddos (the Turkeybird & Littlebug) are huge fans, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t a few bumps in the road.

Beginning with the book that started it all, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, it’s easy to see how Mo Willems grabbed the attention of readers right off the bat. His illustrations, which are all done by himself, are simple but if the text was coupled with any other illustrator I just don’t think it would have worked. How can you not love a demanding pigeon whose one eye stares you down with pleading to allow him to drive a bus? Both my kiddos love this book in the Pigeon series as much as they love Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! in the series as well.

So when does a children’s book author go wrong? When they do the unthinkable and make “cute” additions to a series. Maybe I’m the only one who thinks this, but I loved the Pigeon so why not leave it at that? Why add in books like The Pigeon Loves Things That Go! and The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too! ? Both are board books based on the popular series, but why do we need to pigeon to tell us about feelings and cars? It  just seemed so out of touch with the rest of the series and they were both books my kiddos simply didn’t connect with. In the end they left me wondering if Mo was in need of an extra pay check, so why not write another book? You know?

To end on a high note I should mention that it’s a rarity that our family finds a Mo Willems book we don’t love. Our first encounter with his work was with his Elephant & Piggie series, specifically I Love My New Toy! and Can I Play Too?. What Mo Willems does both on the page and in person when he reads his books, is capture the essence of what it is to be a child. Who would think to incorporate a snake who wants to play catch with an Elephant & Pig and have that be funny? It is. So much so that these are the go-to books for our family.

If you aren’t a huge picture book fan, but are wanting to venture out into uncharted territory or perhaps haven’t read anything by Willems I’d suggest starting with either of the two series I mentioned above or possibly even his Knuffle Bunny series, Cat the Cat series or his newest Hooray for Amanda and Her Alligator!. But please…stay away from the spin offs from the series that involve basics like feelings & cars and go for the real deal!

Thank you again to Alyce for this fantastic opportunity!

Danielle xo

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