Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! was written and illustrated by Mo Willems and was a 2004 Caldecott Honor recipient. Its intended audience is children ages two to six. Most Caldecott winners exhibit excellent, and sometimes even breathtaking illustrations, but this book, in my opinion does not stand out too much beyond the norm. I was not very impressed with the drawings, which to me seem pretty basic. I am sure that was the intention of the artist, but I don't think these illustrations make the book come to life. The pigeon is basically drawn in a comic-strip-like format, with dialogue bubbles appearing above his head. The book itself was not very entertaining to me either - I found it rather silly and pointless. I realize the author was trying to be clever, but I just did not think it was anything exceptional. I believe most children in the age range for which the book was directed will be expecting a story/plot of some sort, but will be disappointed when they find out nothing really happens with the pigeon driving the bus. From its title, I assumed the pigeon would actually be driving the bus and something funny would happen, but that is not the case. Perhaps the Pigeon books (there are several written by this author) are more entertaining for adults who like that type of humor. I do like the idea of the pigeon wanting to do something and trying to get his way by begging and bargaining with the unseen adult reading the story.

I am not a big fan of comic strips and maybe this is what sparked my negative reaction to the book. I like reading stories and books in sentence/paragraph style, and I did not enjoy the format of this book.


Part of me wonders if this book was given the award because of Mo Willems's reputation as an animator for Sesame Street and because he is the creator of Sheep in the Big City on Cartoon Network. I am sure this is the case with some award-winning children's books, even though I hate to think that a book would be considered because of "who you know" or "who you are." Just because Mo Willems was successful with his animation in Sesame Street does not mean that everything he does will be great. There are some authors/illustrators that are known for their consistent outstanding work, and I guess there are some "one-hit-wonder" authors/illustrators in children's literature also. But some readers evidently enjoy the pigeon created by Willems, because he wrote quite a few others in this series.

This book would not be on my list of "must-haves" for a children's library collection.