Robert Munsch (born June 11, 1945) is an American-born Canadian children's author, most famous for The Paper Bag Princess and Love You Forever. Originally studying to be a Jesuit priest, he later decided to work with children. The 1990's cartoon A Bunch of Munsch is based on his books.
He has also been outspoken about his struggles with Manic-Depression and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. His books are the most-often stolen from the Toronto public library.
Works by Robert Munsch with their own pages:
Other works by Robert Munsch contain examples of:
- Alliterative Title: One book is called Smelly Socks.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: In I'm So Embarrassed, Andrew and Taylor Jae's mothers embarrass their children by showing baby photos and buying them undies in front of the opposite gender.
- And I Must Scream: In the 2010 story Put Me in a Book! (which is a joke on how Munsch's stories are often inspired by real children) a girl named Hailey wants to be put in a book, and the writer physically does so. The kids soon get her out again by changing the ending, and Hailey writes "Then the writer wrote HIMSELF into the book. He could not get out and he was trapped there FOREVER." No need to guess what happens next...
- Author Avatar: The father in Something Good looks very much like Munsch himself did when he wrote the book. The children, Tyya, Andrew, and Julie, are named after Munsch's adopted children.
- Big "NO!": In Thomas' Snowsuit, this is the title character's reaction every time someone tells him to put on his snowsuit.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: In We Share Everything, Jeremiah and Amber, when their teacher asks them why they swapped clothes, reiterates her catchphrase "This is kindergarten, and in kindergarten, we share. We share everything."
- Brought Home the Wrong Kid: In Alligator Baby, a little girl's parents accidentally taking a baby alligator home instead of the child the mom gave birth to.
- Calling Your Bathroom Breaks: I Have To Go has a boy Andrew who has a Potty Emergency several times. Every time he does he shouts "I HAVE TO GO PEE!!"
- Cassandra Truth: In Jonathan Cleaned Up - Then He Heard A Sound, Jonathan tries to convince his mom that the big mess in the living room was caused by a subway train passing through. She doesn't believe him at first, but the third time, she's there when the train passes through, finally convincing her.
- Catchphrase: Many characters have repeated lines of dialogue:
- Andrew in I Have to Go has "I have to go pee!".
- The teacher in We Share Everything has "This is kindergarten, and in kindergarten, we share. We share everything."
- Mortimer in Mortimer has "Bing bang, rattle bing bong, I'm gonna make my noise all day."
- Clothing Switch:
- Thomas' Snowsuit involves a series of these, with a teacher and then the principal trying to get Thomas into his snowsuit. Each time, one of them takes Thomas in one hand, the snowsuit in the other, a fight ensues, and when the dust clears, no one is wearing the right clothes.
- Near the end of We Share Everything, Jeremiah and Amanda end up switching their outfits when they both decide to share their clothes, and the rest of the kindergarten class follows suit.
- Crash Course Landing: In Angela's Airplane, a girl accidentally takes off in a plane, and the air traffic controller coaches her down. Averted when she becomes a real pilot many years later.
- Darker and Edgier:
- The story From Far Away. It was inspired by a real girl from Lebanon named Saoussan and it is written from her perspective. She describes (in graphic detail) how she was driven away from her home in Beirut and how she went to live in Canada. What makes it even more heartbreaking is when she sees a Halloween skeleton on her classroom door and becomes totally traumatized.
- The story A Promise is a Promise, which was partly inspired by Inuit mythology. It deals with a young Inuit girl who goes ice fishing near the ocean and insults the Qallupilluit (mythical creatures said to kidnap disobedient children). The Qallupilluit soon show up and promptly try to pull her under the ice so she will drown. She soon escapes but she is left shaken by the whole experience.
- DIY Dentistry: In Andrew's Loose Tooth, a dentist ties a rope around Andrew's tooth, and Andrew asks him if he's going to tie it to the door so he can slam it. The dentist says he's actually going to tie it to his car. Andrew's tooth is so stuck, however, that the car just falls apart.
- Easily Embarrassed Youngster: I'm So Embarrassed features Taylor Jae and Andrew, who are both young kids and who embarrass easily when their mothers buy undies, show baby photos, etc.
- Embarrassing Damp Sheets: In I Have to Go, Andrew wets the bed while staying at his grandparents' house.
- Infant Sibling Jealousy: In Alligator Baby, this is discussed when a couple accidentally brings home baby animals instead of their newborn son. They present the baby animals to their daughter Kristen, but she declares, "This is not my brother!". The parents assume that she is jealous of her brother and scold her for it.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: In Mortimer, Mortimer has seventeen siblings.
- Loose Tooth Episode: In Andrew's Loose Tooth, Andrew has a loose tooth and bites into an apple, which causes him a lot of pain, so his family members try to take it out in several ways. Even the dentist and the Tooth Fairy can't take it out, but at the end, Andrew's friend Louis helps him sneeze his tooth out by sprinkling pepper on his nose.
- Not Where They Thought: In Alligator Baby, Kristen's parents drive to a zoo, thinking it to be the hospital, when the mother goes into labour, and then bring back baby animals instead of their newborn son.
- Pink Means Feminine: In We Share Everything, when Jeremiah puts on Amanda's clothes, he notes that none of the other boys are wearing pink.
- Potty Emergency: In I Have to Go, Andrew has to pee several times. At one point, he has to pee in the car and when his parents tell him to wait, he says that he can't wait.
- Severely Specialized Store:
- Zoom! starts with the protagonists visiting a wheelchair store (which is treated as if it were a car dealership).
- Smelly Socks includes a trip to the city's socks store, which is so large it can be seen from the river.
- Share Phrase:
- In I Have to Go, Andrew's relatives say, "Andrew, do you have to go pee?".
- In Alligator Baby, Kristen's parents say, "Now, don't be jealous."
- Stephanie's classmates in Stephanie's Ponytail say, "Ugly, ugly, very ugly!".
- Toilet Humour: Good Families Don't is all about a sentient fart that knocks the protagonist's parents unconscious.
- Unconventional Food Order: In Swamp Water a little girl named Victoria orders "swamp water" at a restaurant, which is cola, ginger ale, root beer, orange soda, and chocolate milk mixed together.
- Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour: Mortimer keeps singing in the middle of the night, waking up his parents and his seventeen siblings.
- You Are the New Trend: In Stephanie's Ponytail, everyone in school boos the main character's hairstyle, only to copy it the next day. At first only the girls do it, but then the boys and even the teacher get in on it. She keeps changing where the ponytail is, and everyone keeps copying her. Stephanie grows more and more incensed at the copycats until the end, when she angrily announces that she is going to shave her head. Everyone else shaves themselves bald immediately... and Stephanie comes to school with the same hairstyle at the start of the book.
