WILLEMS: I know nothing about opera, and that made it really compelling. UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #1: (As character, singing) I have to pretend, asleep pretend. Twenty years on, Willems has taken The Pigeon to school, to ride a roller coaster and, now, to the opera. GOMEZ SARMIENTO: "Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus!" was about a pigeon - last name - Pigeon, first name - The - who asks, begs, demands to get a chance to drive a bus while the driver is on break. The Pigeon showed up one day while I was trying to write a great picture book - this before I had ever been published - and The Pigeon said, don't. He spends years thinking about them, developing them, figuring out the stories they'll be a part of. ISABELLA GOMEZ SARMIENTO, BYLINE: Mo Willems says most of the characters in his children's books are born in an idea garden. As NPR's Isabella Gomez Sarmiento reports, the Pigeon made his operatic debut at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center. But last weekend, readers got to see and hear a brand new side of the bossy bird. This month marks 20 years since Mo Willems published his first picture book, "Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus!" It has sold more than 6 million copies and received a Caldecott honor.
To mark the anniversary, Willems and Renee Fleming presented the pigeon's story in an opera at the Kennedy Center. Mo Willems' picture book Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! turns 20 this month.
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