Meet: Mo Willems! (again!)

Hey everyone, it’s Kathy Ellen.
I met this guy last week!

Since I’ve already met him, Singe Singe asked if he could write up this post.
Of course I agreed.
Here you go!

Meeting Mo Willems: A report by Singe Singe Davis.

First, we had to ride in the car for a long time.
This bookstore is called BookPassage.
It’s one and a half hours away.
Plus we had to cross a bridge.

We got there really early and looked around at other books.
Kathy Ellen even bought another one of Mo’s books to get signed.
And then we had to wait.

Waiting is really hard.
The chairs were comfy though and there were lots of other kids who I could talk to.
And play with.
I don’t think they had seen a sock monkey before so they were excited.

Everyone had the book,
which is called “Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs”
and parents were reading it all over the place.

Finally, Mo came out!
And he let us take pictures!
Here’s the first one Kathy Ellen took:

DSCN2520 — Mo doesn’t like flashes, so he asked people to take pictures of their feet first to make sure that their flash wasn’t on.
Kathy Ellen is really good human, so she did it!
I think my foot is a little better looking, but hey, who’s counting?

and then she took a whole lot more!

DSCN2523 — Reading to some people on the side.

DSCN2525 — Yeah, the book is really that much fun!

DSCN2526 — There were a lot of people there and the stage was a pretty good size…

Mo said he wanted people to get all the “documentation” out of the way first.
And just experience the time there.
I liked that.
So did Kathy Ellen.

So what did he do?
He read us “Goldilocks and the Three dinosaurs.”
It was really funny and I really liked his voices that he did for each of the dinosaurs.
They kind of sounded scary and funny at the same time.

Then kids could ask questions.
I was trying my hardest to think of one,
but I couldn’t think of one.
Also, my hand is pretty little,
so he may not have been able to see me anyway.

There were some great questions.

One boy asked, “Are you going to make the rest of that story?”
About the Goldilocks story!
Mo told him the book was done.
It was funny.

Someone asked why he started writing for children, and he said,
“In TV I was writing for children and not seeing my own,” so then he decided to change.

Someone asked what Pigeon’s first and last name was.
Ready:
First name: The
Last name: Pigeon.

He said Piggie is named Piggie because she had the cutest face when she was born.
And that the Elephant is named Gerald,

because
Elephant Gerald
is his favorite singer.

I didn’t get it,
but Kathy Ellen did.

Someone also asked if Pigeon and Elephant and Piggie
will be together in a story ever.
“The pigeon is kind of jerky and angry when I’m not writing about him,” he said,
“so he won’t meet Elephant or Piggie in a book.”

I really liked when he said
that something he hasn’t finished
is more exciting than what
he has finished already.

I feel that way about art projects.
Luckily Kathy Ellen does too, that way we can have lots of messes in our room.

Also, he said:

“If you’re writing,
you are a writer.
RIGHT NOW.”

Kathy Ellen really liked that.

Finally he told us about some upcoming projects.
“Don’t let the pigeon finish this activity book” that has really fun stuff in it, like writing a book and having a book signing, and everything! I’m totally going to do it! Kathy Ellen said I could and it comes out October 2nd.
Elephant and Piggie for for a Drive is a new book that’s out too.
And coming in Spring there’s going to be a sketchbook kind of book coming out with 20 years of sketches called “Don’t Pigeon Hole me.”

And then, we got to meet Mo!
We got Goldilocks signed, and “City Dog, Country Frog” and another pigeon book.
Plus a book called, “Why Picture Books Matter” that Kathy Ellen likes to read.
Mo has an interview in there.

Kathy Ellen talked to him about his books and about the last time she saw him, and thanked him for being so awesome, and then she handed him the
ROCKSTAR
thank you note and asked
if I could meet him.

And then this happened!!!!