Robert Munsch

A born storyteller, Robert Munsch loves writing stories for young

children, and children love reading them. A bestselling author in both

Canada and the United States, he has sold over thirty million books.

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His official biography says he grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but Robert Munsch
likes to say that he never grew up at all - he’s still as much of a kid as ever! That could be
the secret that makes him one of the most popular children’s writers in the world.
Somehow, he has never lost the power of imagination we all had as children.
Using his imagination is what kept Robert going through school, which he found
difficult. He was a very bad pupil and never really learned the basic skills of math and
spelling. But he could reach into his mind and come out with wonderfully inventive, silly
ideas that he turned into poems and stories.
Robert first set out to become a priest, and also studied history and anthropology at
university. But along the way, something special happened - he got introduced to
children, and the children got introduced to his stories.
Working at a daycare centre to put himself through school, Munsch discovered his
amazing storytelling skills and the joy of thinking like a kid again. Incredibly, he did this
for ten years, making up one wonderful story after another, day after day, without ever
thinking of writing them down!
It was only when he and his wife moved to Guelph, Ontario, and a librarian overheard
Munsch’s stories that he was convinced to send some of them to a publisher. Just one was