Mo Willems Releases New Kids’ Book, ‘Are You Small?’

Famed kids’s ebook creator. Mo Willems, launched his newest kids’s ebook, Are You Small?, encouraging youngsters to discover a number of the smallest issues within the universe in a playful means. That consists of issues like a hamster and a cookie crumb, in addition to scientific mentions, similar to a cell and hydrogen atom.

The ebook is the follow-up to Are You Big?, Willems’ kids’s ebook launched in February 2024. It additionally appears on the relationship between dimension and scale—however on the alternative finish of the spectrum.

Willems, who says he enjoys studying nonfiction, wished to create books that have been enjoyable and fewer dogmatic. “The story of determining that the world will be very, very huge, or very, very small, is extra fascinating than a bunch of info listed,” Willems tells Parents. 

But the ebook additionally digs into the curiosity many youngsters have in regards to the world round them. It’s a curiosity Willems additionally had whereas rising up.

“As a child, I actually wished to know if I used to be huge and small, and was at all times type of amazed by the idea of the celebrities being very far-off, or simply the scale of mud, and issues like that,” shares Willems. “So, it was an opportunity to discover, actually, and hopefully to be somewhat bit humorous.”

Fostering Creativity With Your Children

The New York Times bestselling creator/illustrator additionally hopes to spark some marvel within the caregivers who’re studying the books with their little ones. “I need to have as a lot surprise within the youngsters as within the grownups,” he says. “I need the grownups to additionally take into consideration issues somewhat bit in a different way.”

Why? “Curiosity is important to a satisfying life I consider, and positively to a artistic life,” shares the daddy of 1. “So, approaching completely the whole lot with curiosity is a pleasure.”

Creativity and curiosity usually go hand in hand, and oldsters can empower their youngsters’ creativity, says Willems. To do this, he suggests asking questions. For instance, if a baby attracts an image, ask them, “What did you draw first?” reasonably than simply complimenting the drawing.

“Because youngsters draw chronologically, and so they’re telling tales,” says Willems. First, they’ll normally draw the character, then they’re going to draw the place the place the character lives, after which they’re going to draw the opposite elements to the image, he explains.

Asking what they drew first can assist spark conversations and develop the creativeness. Parents can then ask issues like who the character is, the character’s location, and what the character is doing.

“Then the drawing type of grows and it turns into a type of storytelling,” says Willems, who started his profession as a author and animator for Sesame Street.

Willems’ Natural Sense for Storytelling

Of course, storytelling comes naturally for Willems, who has written dozens of youngsters’s books it’s possible you’ll be studying to your kids just like the Elephant & Piggie, and Knuffle Bunny collection.

But he’s additionally telling tales via his Hidden Pigeon Company the place he releases new content material on the Mo Willems Workshop YouTube Channel, together with “The Pigeon Explains!” It stars his Pigeon character featured within the ebook Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! as a puppet who learns tips on how to do on a regular basis issues from youngsters themselves.

Through his work, Willems says he isn’t making an attempt to inform folks what to assume, however encouraging minds to discover other ways of pondering. “If this opens up an avenue to any type of exploration, any type of, ‘Let’s ask this query and see how far we are able to go and the way foolish we are able to get with it,’” he says, “then, I’ll be comfortable.”

That want to discover and study one thing new is what continues to drive his personal creativity, too.

“I’m so extremely fortunate that I don’t perceive something. I do not perceive how the world works. I do not even perceive how my drawings work. I’m so befuddled and that permits me to proceed working,” he says. “And here is the factor: expertise is negligible—does not actually matter. Passion issues. And what ardour is, is the willingness to do one thing poorly over and time and again, till it ceases to be completed poor. And fortunately for me, there are such a lot of issues to be enthusiastic about that I’m fairly positive I will fill the remainder of my days creatively.”