Mo Willems

Mo Willems (born 1968) is an American author and illustrator of children's picture books, best known for Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (2003), the Knuffle Bunny books and the Elephant & Piggie early readers.

Willems comes from Des Plaines, Illinois, grew up in New Orleans and graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Before turning to books he wrote and animated for Sesame Street from 1993 to 2002, winning six Daytime Emmy awards for writing. He created The Off-Beats and Sheep in the Big City for television and was head writer of Codename: Kids Next Door for its first four seasons. In 2019 he became the Kennedy Center's first education artist in residence.

His first picture book, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, was published by Hyperion Books for Children on 1 April 2003 and won a Caldecott Honor in 2004; the Pigeon has returned in many sequels, starting with The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! (2004). Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale (Hyperion, 2004) took a Caldecott Honor in 2005 and was followed by Knuffle Bunny Too (2007) and Knuffle Bunny Free (2010). Elephant & Piggie began in 2007 with Today I Will Fly! and My Friend Is Sad and ran to 25 books, ending with The Thank You Book (2016). There Is a Bird on Your Head! (2008) and Are You Ready to Play Outside? (2009) won Geisel Medals.

For collectors. His first printings are American Hyperion editions, and three of his books carry Caldecott Honors. The earliest copies of the Pigeon and Knuffle Bunny books are therefore the first Hyperion printings from New York.