With an engaging, conversational style, wisecracking illustrator Willems invites readers into the inner workings of his artistic process as he reflects upon the last twenty years of sketches, scribbles, and doodles. As a starving artist living in New York, Willems began drawing cartoons for a 'zine in 1993, eventually putting his sketches together in a special edition, the first Mo Willems Sketchbook. The single-panel, editorial-like cartoons that make up that early publication and its subsequent iterations are presented here, along with more narratively structured sketches, several of which eventually led to some of Willems' best hits, including Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (BCCB 5/03) and Leonardo, the Terrible Monster (BCCB 11/05). Overall, though, the material here is aimed at an older audience; the tendency toward mischief and naughtiness that threads through so many of Willems' children's book is given free, adult-oriented rein in this particular format and his characteristic cleverness is on display alongside a penchant for dark comedy and existential contemplation (and a drunken bunny). Eric Carle provides a brief, amiable foreword, while somewhat adulatory quotes from various authors, illustrators, and celebrities introduce each chapter. The oversized pages and clean, focused layout keep the viewer's attention on the art, mostly black and white sketches that range from frenetically cartoony to solemnly abstract. While this has potential curricular use in a high school or college art class, its main audience will be interested adults; it would certainly make a fine gift book for those parents who match their children in their enthusiasm for the antics of Elephant and Piggie. KQG—BCCB
In the foreword to this impressive coffee-table-size art book, Eric Carle calls Mo Willems "the master of the doodle." Carle provides a doodle of his own: the iconic hungry caterpillar, waving a heart flag and proclaiming, "Mo Willems rocks!" A compilation of Mo's sketchbooks from the past two decades, this offers a fly-on-the-wall look at where the illustrator's ideas originate. Fun fact: Pigeon, of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, appeared in a sketchbook long before his 2003 debut; he was "born in the corner of a notebook, complaining about how he was better than other doodles I was making." That sounds like Pigeon alright. In addition to Mo's general introduction, he briefly introduces each of the 20 sketchbooks. For instance, Mo tells us that Sketchbook 5, called "I'm Fine," was inspired by William Steig's The Lonely Ones (1970). Other entries include "Lazy Day Doodles," "Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs" (now a picture book), and the hysterical "Olive Hue Show Mutts," in which a drunk, slurring rabbit reminds adults just how hard it is to learn to read. The clean design and pastel background colors echo Mo's picture books, and the volume will delight his numerous fans-his adult fans (but let's not pigeonhole)-from beginning to end. - Ann Kelley—Booklist
In this collection of sketches, adult fans of the award-winning Pigeon, KnuffleBunny, and Elephant and Piggie books are treated to a peek inside the mind of one of the most critically acclaimed and best-selling children's book creators of our time. Complied from volumes of The Mo Willems Sketchbook, an annual gift presented to friends, family, and potential clients, many of the drawings predate Willems's success as a picture-book author/illustrator. The early sketchbooks feature single cartoon-style panels and clever visual gags in the manner of the New Yorker. They crack wise about such topics as City Life, The Creative Process, and Couples. Some of the sketchbooks are deeply personal, such as I'm Fine, a darkly comic journey through self-doubt and fear. Later sketchbooks reveal Willems's early experiments with the slightly longer narratives and dynamic page turns that became the springboard for his first picture books. Adults will appreciate many of the grown-ups-only read-alouds such as the hilarious and "intoxicatingly hard reader" Olive Hue Show Mutts. Educators in the fields of children's literature and art will find interest in seeing the genesis of characters like The Pigeon and enjoy this rare glimpse into the often-private world of artist doodles. Kiera Parrott, Darien Library, CT—SLJ
10/01/2013
In this collection of sketches, adult fans of the award-winning Pigeon, KnuffleBunny, and Elephant and Piggie books are treated to a peek inside the mind of one of the most critically acclaimed and best-selling children's book creators of our time. Complied from volumes of The Mo Willems Sketchbook, an annual gift presented to friends, family, and potential clients, many of the drawings predate Willems's success as a picture-book author/illustrator. The early sketchbooks feature single cartoon-style panels and clever visual gags in the manner of the New Yorker. They crack wise about such topics as City Life, The Creative Process, and Couples. Some of the sketchbooks are deeply personal, such as I'm Fine, a darkly comic journey through self-doubt and fear. Later sketchbooks reveal Willems's early experiments with the slightly longer narratives and dynamic page turns that became the springboard for his first picture books. Adults will appreciate many of the grown-ups-only read-alouds such as the hilarious and "intoxicatingly hard reader" Olive Hue Show Mutts. Educators in the fields of children's literature and art will find interest in seeing the genesis of characters like The Pigeon and enjoy this rare glimpse into the often-private world of artist doodles.—Kiera Parrott, Darien Library, CT
Twenty years of doodles collected in a coffee-table volume, offering a well from which Willems has indeed drawn more than the importunate pigeon starring in many of his seemingly artless, improbably successful children's books. The earlier issues of annual booklets gather witty but conventional New Yorker–style single-panel vignettes of city life and modern romance, one-liners from the therapist's couch or general sight gags ("The grim reaper at happy hour"). Later, the content becomes less mannered as it broadens into extended plot lines in early versions of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (2003) and Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs (2012), experiments in the effective use of page turns and color, a gallery of "Monsters in Underpants" and wordplay in a monologue delivered by a drunken "Belligerent Bunny" ("Olive hue show mutts!"). Though composed throughout with characteristic minimalism (except for a closing section of strip comics), the cartoon illustrations show a stimulating range of experimentation--from scribbles and jagged semiabstracts to urbane tableaux, smudgy rubber-stamp work and balletic, Jules Feiffer–esque figures in "Float." Along with a preface explaining the Sketchbooks' origins, the three-time Caldecott Honor winner and two-time Geisel Medal winner provides introductory remarks on events and influences behind each. Occasional sound-bite commendations from colleagues and friends (Norton Juster: "I wish I couldn't draw the way Mo can't draw") would have been better placed on the flaps or endpapers but do enhance the overall celebratory feeling. Eric Carle provides a foreword. Hilarious to, at worst, mildly amusing glimpses of a comic genius at play. Even the pigeon would agree.
