It’s not fair — Jamaal is the biggest kid in his family, but he has the smallest room. And if Mom and Dad won’t help, he’s going to have to take care of the problem himself!
When Robert Munsch visited the school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1996, he met a boy named Jamaal whose father was posted to the army base there. Jamaal was the oldest kid in his family and thought he should have the biggest bedroom, so Robert Munsch made up this story for him. Jamaal thinks he got picked to be in a new story because of his big smile – he called it his superpower!
Robert Munsch is Canada's bestselling author. Long before he started writing books, he 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 their 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, more than 50 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. They have been translated into over 20 languages, from Arabic to Swedish, including several First Nations languages. 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!
Robert Munsch was even once a kid himself. He grew up in a large family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now that he’s grown up and has (grown-up) kids of his own, he lives with his wife in Guelph, Ontario, where you can often find him on long walks with his dog.
Dave Whamond is an award-winning illustrator and cartoonist. He has has illustrated more than 45 picture books including the Oddrey series and My Think-a-ma-Jink. His syndicated cartoon strip Reality Check is now in its 20th year and is featured in newspapers around the world. When his kids were young, Dave read Robert Munsch books to them and imagined one day illustrating them himself. That dream came true with the book Braids!, which won the prestigious Reuben Award for Best Illustrated Book from the National Cartoonists Society. Dave lives in Calgary, Alberta.
