Paul R. Gagne and Mo Willems of Weston Woods win 2010 Carnegie Medal for “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!”

Contacts: Macey Morales / Jennifer Petersen


ALA Media Relations


312-280-4393/5043

For Immediate Release


January 18, 2010

BOSTON –Paul R. Gagne and Mo Willems of Weston Woods, producers of “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!” are the 2010 recipients of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children’s video. The video is an animated delight, as Pigeon tries to cajole his way into achieving his long held dream of driving a bus. The award was announced today by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), during the ALA Midwinter Meeting held Jan. 15 – 19 in Boston.

Established with the support of Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Carnegie Medal honors an outstanding American video production for children released during the previous year. The award is administered by ALSC.

Pigeon wants desperately to be behind the wheel of a bus, but when a bus driver leaves one unattended, he asks the children to make sure that the pigeon doesn’t drive the bus. The pint-size watch guards chorus emphatic “NOs” when Pigeon begs for his big chance. Thwarted at every turn, Pigeon decides that a bus is not the only vehicle he sees himself operating. Narrated by Mo Willems with the help of Jon Scieszka, this video will tickle the tail feathers of anyone who watches it.

This energetic and wacky production takes a book that screams for interaction and provides that with the voices of children answering the pigeon’s plaintive cries for driving the bus. An inspired book takes flight in this DVD and adds touches that make the whole enterprise a roaring success.

“Pigeon may not get to drive the bus but we laugh so hard at his antics, we just can’t feel too sorry for him!” said Carnegie Medal Committee Chair Joan Kindig.

Members of the 2010 Carnegie Medal Committee are: Chair Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Charlottesville, Va.; Winnie Awarski, Cuyahoga County Public Library-Warrensville Heights (Ohio) Branch; Amanda L. S. Murphy, Warren-Trumbull County Public Library, Warren, Ohio; Martha Perry, Princeton (N.J.) Public Library; Lisa Schwandner, Cuyahoga County Public Library-North Royalton (Ohio) Branch; Jennifer M. Smith, Suffern (N.Y.) Free Library; Rose Sonnier, Houston Public Library System; Madeline Walton-Hadlock, San Jose (Calif.) Public Library-Alum Rock Branch; and Steve Zampino, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, Conn.

ALSC is the world’s largest organization dedicated to the support and enhancement of library service to children. With a network of more than 4,200 children’s and youth librarians, literature experts, publishers and educational faculty, ALSC is committed to creating a better future for children through libraries. To learn more about ALSC, visit their Web site at
www.ala.org/alsc.

For information on the Andrew Carnegie Medal and other ALA Youth Media Awards, please visit
www.ala.org/yma.