Long before he started writing books, Robert Munsch was a storyteller. The first time he told his stories to a group of children was in 1972, when he was a student teacher at a nursery school. The children liked his stories, so he started telling them more often. He would often take the same story and tell it again and again, changing it a little bit each time, until it got to be really good. Kids liked how loud and animated he was while he told them stories, so he kept doing that, too. This would become his signature storytelling style.

Eventually, once his stories got really, really good, he wrote them down and sent them to a publisher. The publisher said “Yes!” to the story that became the book Mud Puddle. Today, nearly 100 Robert Munsch books have been published. Some, like Love You Forever, became runaway international bestsellers. Some, like The Paper Bag Princess and Zoom!, challenge conventions and stereotypes. But nearly ALL of them are based on real kids that Robert Munsch has met, often on his tours and travels. Sometimes, as in Finding Christmas and Pyjama Day!, he even uses his own family. Each book is dedicated to the kid or kids it is based on. You can find out more about the story behind each book by clicking on the “About this story” buttons on this website.

While Robert Munsch has countless fans across North America (he receives about 10,000 letters a year!) his books are also popular around the world. His books have sold more than 82 million copies and have been published in 31 territories and 45 languages, including 20 Indigenous languages and dialects. Robert Munsch has received many awards for his work as an author and storyteller. He has a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame, the Order of Canada, and a school named in his honour! In 2022, he was nominated for the prestigious international Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

Robert Munsch was even once a kid himself. He grew up in a large family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now that he’s grown up he has three grown-up kids of his own, and three grandchildren!

Robert Munsch is no longer telling stories to kids at schools, but he has written many, many stories that will someday become new books!

Learn more at www.scholastic.ca/munsch