It’s the birthday of Mo Willems (b. 1968), who as any young child can tell you is the author and illustrator of the wildly popular and funny Pigeon books, Elephant and Piggie books, and many others. Willems was raised in New Orleans and spent much of his youth drawing Snoopy and Charlie Brown, even writing to Charles Schulz at one point to say he wanted Schulz’s job when he died. (This combination of grim and open-hearted shows in a lot of Willems’ work.) Peanuts was important to Willems because it was the only comic strip in which the main character was unhappy, reflecting something very real about childhood’s challenges.

Willems did a little stand-up comedy in London after high school, then studied film and animation at New York University. He eventually wrote for Sesame Street, winning six Emmy Awards; interestingly, he recalls that Sesame Street didn’t want to hire him as a children’s writer, they just wanted someone funny, which they felt couldn’t be taught. Of animation, he says, “If you saw how much work went into a cartoon, you’d be too depressed to watch it,” adding, “It’s boring, but it’s tedious.” There you go. He eventually decided he wanted to get into writing children’s books, so he moved to Oxford for a month on the assumption that being in Oxford would make him smarter. While writing terrible books there, he started a lot of doodles of a pigeon which eventually became the hit character from his first picture book, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (2003). Willems says the pigeon character is “pure child.” It resonates with children’s experience of constantly being told no.

In 2007, Willems began out his Elephant and Piggie series, featuring the anxious, over-thinking Elephant and his patient, fun-loving friend, Piggie. (Fun fact: the pigeon photobombs the back pages of every single Elephant and Piggie book.) If you haven’t read any of the series, I recommend starting with There Is a Bird on Your Head, which won the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award in 2008 and is very funny. Willems has in fact won a pant load of awards, including three Caldecott Honor Awards, two Geisel Awards, and others. He lives with his wife and daughter, Trixie, in Brooklyn, New York; discerning readers will recognize Trixie as the model for his brilliant Knuffle Bunny books.

If you have a child, you already know Willems’ work. If you don’t, your assignment is to borrow a child and a stack of Willems’ books and spend a pleasant afternoon reading out loud. I personally intend to read his adult book, You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons: The World on One Cartoon a Day (2006), a sketchbook memoir about his trip around the world after college graduation.

Have a pleasant and wholesome Sunday in the bosom of loved ones and stay scrupulously honest to the data.