3 Mo Willems first editions are documented on this shelf, from Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (2003) to There Is a Bird on Your Head! (Elephant & Piggie) (2007) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Mo Willems title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Mo Willems copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! — 2003 · Hyperion Books for ChildrenFirst printing has a number line that includes the 1 on the copyright page; Hyperion Books for Children imprint; sketchy crayon-and-marker style art with color illustrations throughout. The book was issued WITHOUT a dust jacket as a laminated pictorial-board picture book, so the first-printing boards carry no Caldecott Honor seal (the honor was awarded in 2004). Author's picture-book debut. The US Hyperion hardcover of 2003 is the true first edition and earned a 2004 Caldecott Honor. The first-printing covers predate the seal. Later printings add the Caldecott Honor seal to the front cover. Board-book and book-club formats are separate later issues and are not the first edition.
- Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale — 2004 · Hyperion Books for ChildrenThe first printing carries a "First Edition" statement on the copyright page together with a full number line ending in 1; dealers describe first printings as "stated first edition" with a 1 present in the number line. The book is an oblong quarto issued in illustrated paper-covered boards with a pictorial dust jacket; a first-printing jacket is priced at the flap and, critically, carries NO Caldecott Honor seal…. US edition is the true first: Hyperion (New York), 2004, published September 2004. The UK edition from Walker Books (London), ISBN 9781844280599, followed on 4 July 2005 and is a later issue, not a co-first; it is collected only as the first UK appearance. No prior magazine or foreign-language appearance is documented — the census claim of a US-only true first is confirmed. No dedicated book-club edition is documented. The dominant reprint tell is the silver Caldecott Honor seal printed onto the jacket front panel, which was added to printings after January 2005 — any jacket bearing the seal is a later printing. Later Hyperion/Disney-Hyperion printings advance the number line (dealers routinely catalogue copies as "First Edition; Thirteenth Printing" and similar), and the later….
- There Is a Bird on Your Head! (Elephant & Piggie) — 2007 · Hyperion Books for ChildrenFirst printing has a number line that includes the 1 on the copyright page; Hyperion Books for Children imprint; early-reader Elephant & Piggie format. Issued as a laminated pictorial hardcover without a separate dust jacket, so the first-printing boards carry no Geisel Medal seal (awarded 2008). The US Hyperion hardcover of 2007 is the true first edition; it won the 2008 Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal. The first-printing covers predate the seal. Later printings add the Geisel gold seal to the front cover. Book-club issues are separate later printings and are not firsts.
More Children's & YA shelves: Paula Fox, Philip Pullman, Randolph Caldecott, Richard Peck, Rick Riordan, Roald Dahl.
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