Mo Willems

He married Cheryl Camp in Brooklyn, New York, in 1997. They reside in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Since 2003, Willems has authored numerous books for young children, many of which have garnered significant critical acclaim. The New York Times Book Review referred to Willems as "the biggest new talent to emerge thus far in the 00's" — and to his pigeon character as "one of this decade's contributions to the pantheon of great picture book characters." Recently he has been creating the Elephant and Piggie books, an early reader series about a friendly elephant and pig. In 2010, Willems introduced a new series of books featuring Cat the Cat, also aimed at early readers.

Also in 2005, his book Leonardo, the Terrible Monster was named a Time Magazine Best Children's Book; it was also awarded a Book Sense Book of the Year Honor Book in 2006.

Willems' books have been translated into a number of languages, spawned animated shorts that have twice been awarded the Carnegie Medal (Knuffle Bunny, 2007, and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, 2010), and been developed into theatrical musical productions. His illustrations, wire sculpture, and carved ceramics have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the nation. He made several appearances on NPR's All Things Considered as the show's "radio cartoonist" in 2008.

The Pigeon Needs a Bath was awarded the Best Picture Book award by Goodreads in 2014. The Thank You Book was awarded the same award by Goodreads in 2016.

In 2019, Willems was named the Kennedy Center's first education artist-in-residence. In 2020, the Center sponsored a series of virtual lunch doodles with Mo Willems as a way of keeping children entertained during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2019, Willems was named the Best of Brooklyn, during the Brooklyn Book Festival.

In 2020, Willems recorded an audio book, The Pigeon HAS to Go to School!, for which he was nominated for the Audie Award for Young Listeners. The same book had Willems on the NY Times Bestseller list for 11 weeks running.