Photo: Marty Umans

Award-winning author and illustrator Mo Willems talks about his third and final Knuffle Bunny book, a musical based on the lovable stuffed animal, and what to expect in 2010. Here's the corrected version of the interview, with even more details. Tell us about your next Knuffle Bunny book. I’m currently finishing up the final chapter in the Knuffle Bunny saga, titled Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion. The Trixie character has aged a few more years and makes a fateful discovery and decision while on a trip to visit her Oma and Opa in Holland. It’s a story on a global scale and is technically more complex than the previous volumes. I hope no one ends up disappointed when they see the final product, especially the real Trixie. When’s it coming out? It’s scheduled to be released at the end of September 2010, six years after the first book was published. Kids adore your Knuffle Bunny books, so why only write three? It wasn’t my choice. The story itself brought the characters to a sort of final conclusion. I couldn’t cheat the story. While this book is the least factual of the three, it’s the most personal. Tell us about Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical, commissioned by DC’s Kennedy Center for its 2010 season. I’ve been working on the piece for about a year now, and it’s been great fun. The folks at the KC are a joy to work with and haven’t stopped me yet whenever I’ve come up with a crazy idea. You can expect puppets, cool visual effects, and a dramatic song sung entirely in gibberish. How involved are you in it? The Kennedy Center was foolish enough to let me write the script and song lyrics, although they did give me a fantastic dramaturg named Megan Alrutz to help me focus on the emotional through line of the story instead of spending all my time figuring out the giant puppet man-eating brassier. Who’s starring in it? We’ve already had one workshop, and everyone in the cast is top-notch. The trickiest role is that of Trixie, which luckily will be performed by Stephanie D’Abruzzo, an old pal from my Sesame Street and Sheep in the Big City days. Stephanie actually gave Trixie the doll that was the inspiration for Knuffle Bunny, so it’s kind of a cool full-circle thing. What can we expect in the new year? In addition to Knuffle Bunny Free, there will be some more Elephant and Piggie adventures, including my personal favorite, We Are in a Book! We’re also launching a new series for very young kids featuring a cat named Cat the Cat. And to top it off, this summer will see City Dog, Country Frog, a more serious picture book that I wrote with pictures by the great Jon J. Muth. I’m very excited about the collaboration and hope that both of our audiences will be surprised by the book; pleasantly if possible.