As a young man, Willems backpacked around the world for a year, drawing a single cartoon each day. Each one depicts some scene from that day's travels, but otherwise the subject matter is wide open. They're not necessarily the most important event of that particular day. Just something that happened. While the drawings are interesting, the real meat of the book is the short description/commentary under each one to provide context and/or another fun anecdote from the trip. This might sound strange, but I actually really loved that the cartoons were all very, well, cartoony. I've gotten pretty caught up in the urban sketching movement lately and have forgotten that you can illustrate your life without creating a lifelike, detailed painting of the landscape. Definitely recommended. ( )

I picked up You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons: The World on One Cartoon a Day by Mo Willems at a library sale last week. You know Mo Willems, right? The amazing children's picture book author, he of Pigeon fame and Knuffle Bunny fame, universally adored by children of all sizes and ages (even those of us who are 58). If you know who he is, then you know why I couldn't possibly pass up this book for a buck. I read the blurb on the back, telling You Can Never Find a Rickshaw is a compilation of cartoons Willems drew during a round-the-world trip he took in 1990. He made one cartoon a day, each a drawing to help him recall the quirkiest thing that happened that day.

But here was the most amazing thing about this little $1 buy:

Autographed! ( )

In 1990-91, Mo Willems traveled around the world by himself. Each day he drew a cartoon of the thing that had impress3ed him most. ( )