Technolandy

Day 74 (of 2025/26) Reflections on Munsch

I have been a big fan of Munsch since Paperbag Princess got on my radar as a student. His voice, his rhythm, and most of all, his collaboration with Michael Marchenko always meant he had a place of honour in my various libraries… even in secondary schools. The only thing better than reading a Munsch, is hearing him live, which I did have the opportunity to at a Winter Carnival. Lived up to expectations and even got a couple of books signed… to add to my Munsch autograph collection, as I annually bugged him to visit our library/school. He was notorious for never booking school visits. But he would occasionally ‘pop in’ on schools… and he would share via his live presentations that the stories that have been published are merely one version of the same story – going back to the original storytellers before the printing press messed everything up by making people believe there was a definitive ‘right’ story… stories should continue to evolve and improve and be tailored for particular audiences… and he would regularly retell a familiar story in a way that was uniquely ‘ours’ – it was for those of us present… would not be the same for the later show nor any other… pure magic.

So my invitations … evolved… and in my last year before becoming a Vice Principal (and now a Principal) I came up with my most ambitious invitation – via a tribute to this important voice in helping students learn to read… Science of Reading makes sense in many obvious points, such as the value of phonics and phonemic awareness (I am admittedly a disciple of Whole Language – which, as my mentor pointed out, includes Fonix – just doesn’t focus on that exclusively) but often doesn’t push enough about getting to the ‘why’ to read rather than just the ‘how’… the ‘what’ typically gets boiled down to you ‘learning to read so that you can read to learn’, but until kids and teens start writing fan fiction about the black line masters then we need to also add in the layer of ‘joy of reading’ into student development… I still hear people my age… and older… and younger say how much they hate reading and even ‘the worst part of school was having to do reports and shares about what you read’. Not every work of practice needs to be assessed… not every book that is read needs to be analyzed for an adults approval. 

We learn to read so we can read to learn, but if that’s the case, why not pivot to go back to basics and focus on audio/video shares only and not let the made up “text and grammar” get in the way… the way the first critics of the book are echoed with streaming media today. Dickens and Shakespeare were once for the masses, and are now for university exploration – can’t wait to launch my own unit of English New Media that explores social media – studies will be done about the communication style of Brooke Monk, the Kardashians et al on their instagram communciations much as Stephen King novels will be analyzed the way that Geoffrey Chaucers lowbrow humour is today…. And Dogman will be revered as an absolute force in the reading experience of 21st century youth with Dav Pilkey also having courses dedicated to his works. 

While sad that Munsch has announced his impending passing – part of the MAID program in Canada… it is nice that so many of us can celebrate him before that date. And enjoy the ongoing debate of should medical assistance in dying continue (I’m in favour). And share the celebrations and stories of how this author started so many of us on a path of lifelong reading while he still plans his death date. 

Robert Munsch encapsulates so much of what is great about reading. Funny. Insightful. Banned (lots of challenges to his books). Questioning the system (we share everything… fabulous kindergarten field study). But just darn entertaining. I figured at some point I had to try to emulate him, so, way too many years later, here is the share of my invitation to Mr Robert (Bob) Munsch to the school I was part of: