Time to Read Mo Books

When someone starts to say "I will.." in my household, someone else usually follows with "...eat the ice cream!" We're immersed in a new creative world, children's literature and cartoons. The past few weeks the designer in me is geeking out over Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie series. Our first book, "Should I Share My Ice Cream," was a gift. A well read over and over and over gift! Then Santa brought our household a second Elephant and Piggie book, "Waiting is not Easy." Now I'm hooked! Gerald (Elephant's actual name) and Piggie are funny and cute. But it's not just that, the design elements woven into the book help to tell the story. Storytelling, ahhh, the product of all good design! Gerald and Piggie are very simplified characters, and I've come to appreciate simplified illustrations I had overlooked in the past. The simplification helps focus on the characters' situations and emotions, which the stories revolve around. Do books about emotion register with early readers? YES THEY DO!!

I love the use of color. Elephant is gray, and his word bubbles are gray. Piggie is pink and her word bubbles are pink. Likewise, when other characters appear their word bubbles match their character color. In "Waiting is Not Easy," day is passing into night. The background page color becomes gray, getting darker and darker. These are brilliant uses of color to guide the reader. When Gerald or Piggie are shouting, whether excited or upset, the font is very large, almost hand drawn. When Gerald or Piggie are quiet the font is very small. This use of typography is perfect to explain volume.

Breaking the fourth wall, the act of characters crossing an imaginary wall by addressing the viewers or readers directly, is a technique I enjoy seeing in children's cartoons. Daniel Tiger, Blaze and the Monster Machines and Team Umi Zoomi are a few of the cartoons I've seen doing this well. Elephant and Piggie also break the fourth wall at times and it's very fun and effective in the books.

Besides all this Mo Willems is influencing a whole generation of artists by encouraging kids to infringe on his copyright! There are books, lessons and YouTube videos where Mo himself demonstrates how to draw his characters.  Old favorites like books by Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle and P.D. Eastman or cartoons by Charles Schulz and Chuck Jones are still old favorites to share but these books by Mo Willems are great fun if you're reading to kids or a graphic arts geek at heart!


Photograph: Elephant, Piggie and Me by Janet Pahlau