Edutopia: Emily Kaplan Interviews Mo Willems on the Lost Art of Being Silly

One of the things I miss most about transitioning to my position as a STEM teacher is the books we would explore in our old Infotech program. Although Infotech was primarily focused on technology, classes were held in the library and worked in all types of literature.

Mo Willems was one of those authors whose we explored the most. The Knuffle Bunny books are great examples of mixed media and we would often copy his style as kids would create their own characters that they would place into a scene.

In a recent interview for Edutopia, former 2nd-grade teacher Emily Kaplan gets to the heart of what makes Willems tick, his view that parenting should be a license for us grownups to cut loose and be silly with our kids, and that ultimately he just wants his books and characters to be launching pads for kids to generate more ideas and more questions.

Give it a read at Edutopia.