Go Mo!

This is a post to give mad props to Mo Willems, author of Knuffle Bunny and Knuffle Bunny Too, the easy reader series Elephant and Piggie, plus Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus (and other awesome Pigeon books!) About 6 weeks ago my 1st grade class did an author study of Mo Willems. We read a bunch of his books in read aloud, and then every kid decided what book Mo should write next (i.e. Don't Let The Pigeon Get Married!) and we wrote letters to Mo asking him questions about his life and his work. We bundled this all up, along with a letter from the teachers, and sent it off.

Just today ,we received a packet in the mail, which included:
1) A letter (form) with answers to frequently asked questions, but actually signed by Mo.
2) A poster from Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed, personalized by Mo with "Your School 1st grade rocks! Your friend, Mo" (he actually wrote the name of our school, though.)
3) A smaller Elephant and Piggie postcard with a short personal message from Mo!

I'm way impressed by all of this. First of all, the turn around time was pretty impressive. Six weeks door to door? By a best selling children's author? Pretty sweet.

Second of all--he personalized EVERYTHING for us. Sometimes it was just his signature, but twice he wrote us actual notes. Even though it only took probably 2 minutes out of his day to do it, considering how many hundreds of schools write to him each year, those 2 minutes per school add up to a lot of minutes. So I think it's awesome that he actually looked at our work and didn't just have his agent/editor/handler send us some form stuff back.

So mad props to Mo Willems, who just made my entire 1st grade's year!

(By the way, if you haven't read any of Mo's books, you MUST check them out. I often think I find them funnier than the kids do.)