UNITED STATES AUTHOR · CHILDREN · FICTION
Robert N. Munsch
Robert Norman Munsch was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1969, he received a B.A. degree in History from Fordham University. In 1971 he received a M.A. degree in Anthropology from Boston University. After graduating, he studied to become a Jesuit priest, but his experiences in orphanages and day care centers led him to decide he would rather work with children. In 1973, he received a Master of Education in Child Studies from Tufts University. In 1975 he moved to Canada to work at the preschool at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario. He also taught in the Department of Family Studies at the University of Guelph as a lecturer and as an assistant professor. In Guelph, he was encouraged to publish the many stories he made up for the children he worked with. His first book, Mud Puddle, was published in 1979. After his wife delivered two successive stillborn babies, he wrote his most famous book, Love You Forever (1986). He and his wife have since adopted three children. In August 2008, Munsch suffered a stroke that affected his speech. To date, he has written over 50 children's books.
The first Tuesday in October was very much like any other day in Mrs. Hockaday's third grade.
— from Class clown
Most acclaimed
Andrew's Loose Tooth
Andrew's tooth is loose and no one can help him remove it, not even the Tooth Fairy.
Class clown
Leonardo has been making people laugh since he was a baby - when the teacher asks him to stop being the class clown, can he do it? Leonardo has been funny since he was born: he was a funny baby, he was a funny toddler, he was a funny first-grader. But now, his teacher Mrs. Gomez asks him to stop being funny so that the class can learn. He tries his best, but he just has to make a funny face, then tell a funny joke, and then show a funny drawing - with predictable results. And when he finally seriously promises faithfully never to be funny again, he makes the teacher laugh so hard she falls down on the floor laughing!
Love You Forever
The story details the cycle of life by chronicling the experiences of a young son and his mother throughout the course of the boy's life, and describing the exasperating behaviour exhibited by him throughout his youth. In spite of her occasional aggravation caused by her son's behaviour, the mother nonetheless visits his bedroom nightly to cradle him in her arms, and sing a brief lullaby promising to always love him. After her son enters adulthood and leaves home, his elderly mother occasionally sneaks into his bedroom at night to croon her customary lullaby. However she gradually grows old and frail, and her grown son visits his feeble, sickly mother for the final time. When he first arrives, his mother tries to sing her lullaby to him, but she is too weak to finish. He then cradles her in his arms and sings an altered rendition of her lullaby in reciprocation of the unconditional love that she had shown him throughout his life, vowing to always love her in return. After returning home in a scene implying the death of his mother, he cradles his newborn daughter and sings his mother's signature lullaby for her, implying that the cycle will continue.