Robert Munsch, born 11th June 1945, is an American born Canadian author of children’s books. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Fordham University with a degree in Bachelors of Art, he pursued his post graduate studies in Boston University gaining a Master of Arts degree in Anthropology in 1971. Munsch education did not stop there. He also gained a Master of Education in Child Studies from Tufts University.
At first Munsch had decided to become a priest but then he changed his career path towards writing stories for children. He started off with working at day care centers and orphanages. In 1975 he decided to move back to Canada. There he worked in the preschool at the University of Guelph in Ontario. He also lectured and then promoted to become an assistant professor there in the Department of Family Studies.
Robert Munsch is all about storytelling and that is something he loves most. His illustrative style and animated style of telling his story grabbed the attention of his first audience in 1972. And that was the beginning of his storytelling career. According to Munsch a perfect story takes 200 tellings in order to become perfect. He can take days and years perfecting his tale before performing it in front of a larger audience. Robert then started taking his imaginative style to paper and thus became a renowned author for children’s books.
Munsch story characters are taken from real life; the children he meets while storytelling in different places. For example his story Ribbon Rescue was inspired from a girl who came to hear his story wearing a ribbon dress. Another story called ‘Light House’ was inspired from two children named Amanda and Jeremiah who he met in Pontiac, Michigan. His own children have also played part in his stories. Munsch has written many books which have also been translated in various languages. His first books ‘The Mud Puddle and the Dark’ were published in 1979. His most notable work is the book ‘Love you Forever’ which was published in 1986. This book became an international bestseller and sold 6,970,000 copies and 1,049,000 hardcover copies.
His characters are mainly children who challenge the typical stereotypes with their charming, full of life and somewhat obstinate ways. He is a very contemporary writer of children’s stories using words such as ‘pee’ and ‘underwear’ in his stories. Where most of the people are okay with it some also have their reservations about it. The children however are perfectly happy with his was of storytelling.
Robert Munsch was a drug addict and alcoholic but went through rehabilitation later. He also suffered from a severe stroke which severed his ability to talk normally. He has recovered from it though and does perform live now but he has temporarily stopped writing till he is perfectly normal.
Robert Muncsh is most known for his way of storytelling with a much overstated expression and in different voices. He repeats a story many times to improve its quality. Some of his books have also been made into animated series namely ‘Bunch of Munsch’.
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