Article snippet: Mo Willems and Oliver Jeffers — two of the most beloved, and singular, creators of children’s picture books working today — have both seen their literary creations head to the stage. The musical “Elephant & Piggie’s We Are in a Play!,” based on Willems’s Elephant & Piggie series, recently finished a run at the New Victory Theater in New York and is setting out on a national tour; “The Way Back Home,” a puppet production based on Jeffers’s book of the same title, will be at the New Victory from March 10 through March 26. The two authors talked to Maria Russo, The Times’s children’s books editor, about the thrills and embarrassments of children’s theater and their books’ very different journeys to the stage. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. Mo, you were very involved in the play, writing the script and participating all along. Oliver, you didn’t even see this production based on your book until it was a done deal. Can you each talk about those different approaches? MO WILLEMS This show grew out of a healthy relationship with the Kennedy Center. They’d already done “Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical,” based on my books, and that experience was really, really great. We’ve got another in the works too. Now I hope to be doing a play every couple of years, because it’s the opposite of books. Books are really not collaborative, but with theater you get all these actors, they bring something to the table, you can steal it and pretend like it’s yo... Link to the full article to read more