Mo Willems

Some people use meds to cope with anxiety; children’s writer Mo Willems has a cartoon pigeon, said

in The Wall Street Journal. The acclaimed author of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! admits that he channels many of his own worries and questions about the world through the pigeon, his most famous creation. Pigeon, an impulsedriven creature, resists every rule—even important ones such as getting enough sleep ( Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!) and practicing basic hygiene ( The Pigeon Needs a Bath!). But while Pigeon often acts less mature than the books’ preschool audience, he is, to Willems, a philosophical thinker at his core. “He is asking the fundamental, deep questions: What is love? Why are things the way they are? Why can’t I get what I want? Why can’t I drive a bus? I mean, you know, Sophocles.”

These days, both Willems and his feathered friend are being compelled to move outside their comfort zones, said

in NPR.org. Willems, who is currently working in Washington, D.C., after being named the Kennedy Center’s first Education Artist-in-Residence, has been collaborating on a musical adaptation of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! “I get to be really, really terrified in all kinds of new ways,” he says. But he has learned to enjoy the uncertainty—perhaps because Pigeon recently survived a similar challenge in The Pigeon HAS to Go to School!, published this month. For the little gray bird, as for so many 4-year-olds who won’t want to leave home in September, resistance is futile. Says Willems: “He has, for the first time in his short, pigeony life, no choice.”