Mo Willems - Author Illustrator

 

 



Name Ran Johnson

Date  11/27/2012

EED 312 – section 02

Mo Willems

    Mo Willems started with a love of Peanuts. When he was a child, he wrote a letter to Charles Shultz saying that he wanted his job when he died. Later when he was a young adult, he started his illustrative career making small independent cartoons. He was later picked by producers from Sesame Street to be a script writer and animator. While working for Sesame Street, he also worked for Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network on a few animated series.

            After spending several years working in animation, Mo Willems spent a few years at the University of Oxford hoping to work on children’s books. His first few attempts at writing were not successful. Mo Willems is always drawing and doodling characters. It wasn’t until the famed pigeon came into existence that Mo was able to turn his carrier around.

            The pigeon started as a funny character that Mo slipped into letters. His agent eventually gave him the push to turn this character into a book. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus became an instant hit and won the 2004 Caldecott honor award.  Since then, he’s written over 38 books and is still writing and illustrating today.

Mo Willems has a very simple style to his writing and drawing. Mo wanted characters to be so simple that children could create their own characters and comic strips like he did when he was a kid.His drawing style are very organic and simple. His main characters all appear to be drawn with color pencils. He makes good use of negative space and dynamic type facing. 

            In Knuffle Bunny, he blends his drawing with his photography.  In a video interview online, he said that he wanted to cover up the negative elements of his home town with drawings to tell a story. Mo makes good use of all elements of his children’s books, and you can sometimes find some little detail in the illustrations of the frontispiece and/or the flyleaf. You can follow Mo and his creative process at http://mowillemsdoodles.blogspot.com.

Works Cited

ReadingRockets. (n.d.). A Video Interview with Mo Willems. Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/willems/JRank co, M. (n.d.). Mo Willem Biography. Retrieved from http://biography.jrank.org/pages/973/Willems-Mo.htmlWillems, M. (2012). Mo Willems Personal Website. Retrieved from http://www.mowillems.com/

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (2004) This Caldecott Honor award winning book is the story about a pigeon who wants to drive a bus. Would you let the pigeon drive the bus?

Leonard the Terrible Monster (2005) This heartwarming story is about a monster trying to find his place in the world. He might not compare to other monsters the way you’d think a monster should, but he might be a different kind of monster.

 Knuffle Bunny (2004) “Aggle flaggle klabble!” This is the story of a little girl who couldn’t yet speak who misplaces her stuffed bunny while doing laundry with her dad. You’ll have to read to find out if she finds her bunny.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Love My Hair!

I Love My Hair! 

Author: Natasha Anastasia Tarpley

 Illustrator: E. B. Lewis.

Publisher: Little Brown Young Readers

Copyright Date: 2001

            This is the story of a young Black American girl by the name of Keyana. At the beginning this story, she struggles with her hair while her mother combs it, but her mother tells her why she should be proud of her beautiful hair. I love how this book encourages young Black American females to be proud of the hair God gave them. It subtly refers to heritage, creativity, and self expression.

            The illustrations are done in mostly water colors and pen. The texture is very soft. The illustrations are very detail driven to focus on realism. The illustrator makes good use of perspective and proportions to direct reader focus and to draw attention. The lines are very smooth and curved. The colors in the book are very organic earthy colors of browns, blues, and greens. This was probably done to make focus to the worldly connectedness of the heritage of Keyana.

            This book could be appropriate for all ages in school. You could use this book as a writing prompt for something about your family’s heritage or your body that you’re proud of. You could provide this book to a Black American student who struggles with poor self image when it comes to her hair. I liked this book’s potential to instill pride within girls who are told by the media that they have to change to look different than their own culture.

(Special Note: Chris Rock did a documentary on Black American women’s hair called Good Hair.It goes deeper into the issues that these women face.)

I Love Saturdays y Domingos

I Love Saturdays y Domingos

Author: Alma Flor Ada

Illustrator: Elivia Savadier

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers 

Copyright Date: 2004

# of Pages: 32

Genre: Multicultural Fiction

             This cute story is about a little girl who has two sets of grandparents. On Saturdays, she meets with her Euro-American grandparents and on Sundays she meets with her Mexican-American grandparents. This book is chocked full of new words to orient young readers to some common Spanish vocabulary. The little girl loves both of her grandparents very much regardless how different they are from one another and the girl is able to embrace both parts of her culture.

`           The illustrations look like they were done with a mix medium of pen, water colors, and pastels. The textures are very organic and the colors are very soft and calming. The illustrator makes good use of negative space. The perspectives are very two dimensional with the perspective either being right in front or on top of the characters in focus.

            This would be a great way to celebrate Hispanic culture in your classroom. Introducing students to new words from the Spanish language could be appropriate in all age groups. This book is appropriate for ages five and up. This could really be a great addition to classroom where you saw a lot of diversity with  a lot of Hispanic students. You could make note that even though the little girl was able to experience both cultures, she was able to love them both for what they were. 

The Keeping Quilt

The Keeping Quilt

Authors: Patricia Polacco 

Illustrator: Patricia Polacco

Publisher: Aladdin

Copyright Date: 2001

# of Pages: 32

Genre: Multicultural Fiction

            This is the story of a little girl names Anna and her family coming to America from Russia. When Anna comes to America it’s very busy and she has to learn a new language, but soon she learns English and learns to get by in this new culture and environment. As Anna becomes too big for her clothes, Anna’s mother turns her old clothes and the old clothes of her loved ones into a quilt that represents family and tradition.

            The illustrations are made to use color to make focus to main characters and events while everything else is desaturated and made to look like an old vintage sepia photo. The illustrations look like they’re done in color pencil and water colors. Texture is very rough except for the smoothness of the water colors that bring life and focus to the illustrations. It’s almost like the images provide negative space and focus without actually having any negative space at all. I love the details in the designs Patricia Polacco put into things like the women’s bonnets and dresses.

            You could use this for writing prompt involving stirring questions of perspectives regarding diversity with displacement. You could talk about family traditions or time you had to move and learn the customs of a new place. There are tons of writing prompts within this story. You could discuss some of the traditions and cultures of the Jewish faith or people with Russian heritage. It’s an amazing book with loads of character development opportunities.

Chopsticks

Chopsticks

Authors: Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Illustrator: Scott Magoon

Publisher: Hyperion Book CH

Copyright Date: 2012

# of Pages: 40

Genre: Multicultural Fiction

            This book is the story about a set of chop sticks who are best friends. They do everything together until one day of the chopsticks gets broken while they’re practicing martial arts. The other chopstick learns to do things on his own while the broken chopstick heals, and they find out that having the time apart to find what they were good at independently made them stronger friends.

            The illustrations look like a mixture between color pencil and water color. The author makes really good use of background color to signify emotion and climax. All of the characters are drawn with very expressive facial features. Texture is very organic with very curved and smooth lines until there’s a climax or major event where the lines become very sharp and jagged.

            This book would be appropriate for all school age children. You could use this book to discuss the Asian cultures and celebrate have students try to use the chopsticks to find all they uses they could write about doing with chopsticks besides eating with them. I loved the illustrations and the story in this book. I would highly recommend this for a classroom along with their other book Spoon.

Uncover: Dogs

Uncover: Dogs

Authors: Paul Beck 

Illustrator: Jennifer Fairman

Publisher: Silver Dolphin Books

Copyright Date: 2008

# of Pages: 16

Genre: Non-fiction

            The uncover books are always really interesting books because they allow you see into the animal they’re covering. In this book, you get to move system to system by each page as the animal is “uncovered” and broken down. Each page is filled with information about each system and how dogs use that system. Sometimes the information will compare and/or contrast the system in the dog to humans.

            Many of the illustrations are photographs, but most of the illustrations are drawings with mixed media of color pencils and paint. They’re very organic and made to represent the lifelike characteristics of the animal they’re illustrating. The center of the book has a model of the dog has he’s being broken down which is made of plastic that sits on each layer by page. The illustrator doesn’t make a lot of use of intense angles or color tones. Everything is very two dimensional besides the center piece of the book.

            This book is appropriate for ages eight and up. I could see this as a great book to pull out in the sixth grade for a lesson on the body systems. You could also use this book in the fourth grade on a comparing and contrasting project. You could refer to certain pages when talking about mammals in the third grade, but that’s about as low as I could go with this book. I really like the novelty of this book, and I feel like it would be a great conversation piece in a classroom that would engage curiosity in students.

Snakes

Snakes

Authors: Rachel and Jonathan Shelkh-Miller

Illustrator: John Woodcock

Publisher: Scholastic

Copyright Date: 2001

# of Pages: 64

Genre: Non-fiction

            What really caught my eye about this book when I was browsing down the aisles of Books-A-Million’s new children’s floor in Birmingham, Alabama, was how large and bold green the snake was sitting on the shelf. When I think of this book, I think back to a conversation I had when a student in my practicum class. Boys love snakes. I’ve yet to come across a boy that doesn’t, and when you ask them about nonfiction books they like to read, it’s always about really fast vehicles or creepy crawly things. This book is chocked full of the creepy-crawlies. It’s all about snakes, and from cover to cover you get tons of information on these amazing creatures. The great thing about this book that you could use in your classroom is the online database and CD that comes with the book, so you get tons of resources for your classroom.

            Most of the images you see in the book are photographs of snakes at different angles doing the various things snakes do. There are a few illustrations that appear to be done in color pencil. As a photographer’s husband, I could imagine how fun it would be to take shots of these animals up close and personal. I’m sure kids would really enjoy it too!

            You could introduce at any school age, but I think you’d get the most bang out of your buck with a 3^rd for 4^th grade class and up. You could do a lesson on habitats or reptiles. You could do a compare and contrast chart to another book of a certain type of mammal like pandas or something. Between the subject material and the online and offline digital material, the options for the classroom are broad. If I had to be honest with myself, I think I liked this book because, at the core of it, I’m a big kid who loves to read about odd and gross things. 

Who Was John F. Kennedy?

Who Was John F. Kennedy?

Author: Yona Zeldis McDonough

Illustrator: Jill Weber

Publisher: Perfection Learning

Copyright Date: 2005

# of Pages: 106

Genre: Non-fiction

            This book is all about the life and death of President John F. Kennedy. It takes the story and journey that lead him into office and gives a young reader a perspective in what made one of America’s most famous presidents. I found this book to be a relatively quick read while it was full of information about the president. The author has a whole section at Books-A-Million on presidents that are all great reads for educating young readers on our nation’s leaders.

            The illustrations are all black pen on white paper. The front cover is done in water paint, but the pages inside are full of very curvy cartoon style illustrations of the events and places that followed the 35^th president’s life. There’s a lot of negative space in the illustrations, but it doesn’t appear to be that way for any particular purpose. It’s a chapter book with illustrations that help guide young readers through the story by keeping them engaged.

            This book is a appropriate for ages 8 and up. I could see a teacher using this book in conjunction with a history lesson or around Presidents Day. You could also use this as a read aloud for character education. You could also start several writing prompts with this book. Overall, I think book is a great way to educate young reader on the 35^th president.

The Sad Night: The Story of an Aztec Victory and a Spanish Loss

Author: Sally Schofer Mathews

Illustrator: Sally Schofer Mathews

Publisher: Sandpiper

Copyright Date: 2001

# of Pages: 40

Genre: Historical Fiction

               

                This book tells the story of the Aztec people and their conflict with the Spaniards. It has a lot of elements of Aztec culture, and it even has a page with some Aztec print. The book is made to look like an old Aztec codex. It talks about the journeys and quests of the Aztec people during the times of the Spanish conquests.

                The illustrations look like they were done in pen in and color pencil. The edges are very sharp with very square looking characters. The colors are very organic with a lot of blues, browns, and greens. The illustrator makes good use of negative space when using foreshadowing or climax. You could tell that the illustrator was trying to preserve as much of the culture as possible in his illustrations.

                This book would be appropriate for ages 5 and up, but I really wouldn't introduce this book to students until around 4^th grade because of some of the content in the book. You could pull this book out to celebrate multicultural diversity in the classroom for students who had Hispanic heritage. You could also use this book to integrate in a history lesson. I think I liked the illustrations more than the story itself, but overall this was a good story.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Author: Brian Selznick

Illustrator: Brian Selznick

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Copyright Date: 2007

# of Pages: 533

Genre: Historical Fiction

            Brain Selznick was able to captivate me as an adult in this children’s story about a boy who lives within a train station alone. He has to steel food to eat even though he works on the clocks. Through the trials of losing his clockmaker father and being displaced and abandoned, Hugo makes for a character that you can’t help to both pity and fall in love with. He’s a genius child with a plan to repair the automaton –a mechanical man-- his father found for him to find the message his father left in the machine.

            The illustrations were done in pen. The Selznick was able to make good use of negative space because on the rare occasion that every inch of the page wasn’t covered with details, you took notice. I love how the illustrator zooms in to the train station with the first few pages around the frontispiece and leaflet then zooms out in the end. The illustrator made good use of perspectives. The images say so many words that the many pages where there is no writing, only drawings, that you get such a closer perspective into Hugo’s experience. It’s almost like watching a movie which is completely relevant to the plot.

            This book would be more appropriate for your fourth grade classes and up to read alone. I could see this book being a good read aloud book for the third grade though. You could do some literature projects with plot summary. You could talk about French culture and the history of the war that was referred to in the book. There are so many projects you could even do chapter by chapter with student’s drawing and writing what they thing is going to happen next in the story.

Don't Forget, God Bless Our Troops

Don't Forget, God Bless Our Troops

Author: Jill Biden

Illustrator : Raul Colon

Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books

Copyright Date: 2012

# of Pages: 40

Genre: Historical Fiction

                The Second Lady, Mrs. Jill Biden, writes a lovely story about her son’s deployment and the effect it has on her children –mainly Natalie. While the emotions, names, times, and places are true, the author adds a lot of fictional elements to the story. I’ve read online in some places where the book is organized under non-fiction with fictional elements and other places as historical fiction, but either way, it’s a great story that could be used in a classroom during after Veteran’s Day or for a child to read who personally struggles with a family member that’s being deployed to fight overseas.

                The illustrator uses a lot of very soft colors with his paintings. I think that it’s made in such a way to leave the reader with a very solemn feeling while reading. The lines are very smooth and curved in a way that goes back to the tone thing. The paintings were very organic, drawing to very life like characteristics of people’s faces. Honestly though, when I was reading this story, I kept thinking that the illustrations reminded me of an old 1940’s propaganda poster.

                Like I said before, this book could be brought out around veteran’s day to propose all manners of projects. I could see students doing writing projects where they write thank you letters to be sent to soldiers overseas. You could use this in a character education lesson for national pride and respect for the brave men and women who protect our country. You could also have a veteran come in to read this book to the class. This book would be appropriate for ages 5 and up. I would suggest this book to be read alone for silent reading around second  or third grade.