When it come to Munsch stories, I’ll love them forever

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/10/2021 (1454 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When bedtime rolls around in our home and it’s time to pick a story (or three), there’s usually at least one Robert Munsch book in the mix.

We love Munsch stories. They’re fun, they’re usually silly, and they’re often central to some of my most favourite memories.

My mom read them to me as a kid, and now I read them to my own kids. Reciting the familiar words of the stories I grew up with feels like a rite of passage, as my kids echo them back to me. You can’t read a Munsch book without emphasizing the words and becoming the characters. That’s what makes his stories so special. It’s a whole production.

When my daughter was born, my mom gave a copy of Love You Forever, the sweet and sad story Munsch wrote years after he and his wife suffered the loss of two stillborn children. The lullaby in the book was one that he made up in his head for his lost babies — words he couldn’t say out loud.

“I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always. As long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.”

One day, Munsch’s website says, he got the idea to create a story around the lullaby. The book — about a mama and her relationship with her growing son, as she rocks him to sleep every night to the lullaby — might be his best work ever, selling more than 150,000,000 copies worldwide.

I remember my mom reading that book to me when I was small. The words, the pictures and the daydreams behind the story were a large part of my childhood. I remember studying the illustrations of the boy in the stages as he grew — from the toddler flushing a watch down the toilet to the man frying mushrooms in a pan, getting a phone call from his ailing mother.

That particular story has always meant something to me, but it changed profoundly when I became a mom. The sweet little lullaby captured the way my soul felt about my own little girl, who I’ve spent countless nights rocking back and forth, and back and forth and back and forth, while lulling her to sleep.

My copy of Love You Forever is tucked away in a box so my daughter can read it to her own kids (if she chooses to have any) someday. Or, she can keep it for herself and know that this special gift was given to her with a great deal of love and meaning.

Robert Munsch told CBC’s The Next Chapter earlier this month that he has ongoing dementia.

He said he can no longer drive, ride a bicycle or write. All of the things he enjoyed are eroding because of his illness. “It’s been really whittling away on who I thought I was,” he told host Shelagh Rogers.

But, he said, his stories will remain. He suspects they might be some of the last things he’ll remember as the dementia envelopes his life.

In May, I wrote a note to Munsch through his website. I felt compelled to let him know just how much he and the stories he’s written have meant to me and my daughter. I also asked him how he chose the names of the characters.

His assistant, Andrea Perrin responded on his behalf:

“Hi Shelley, Thank you for writing, I am Mr. Munsch’s assistant, he receives so many emails I help him respond to some of them. He has asked me to pass along this answer to your question.

“Thank you for writing and telling me how much you and your daughter love my books. You asked where I get my ideas for characters. I get the ideas for my characters from real kids. Four of my books are dedicated to my own children — Julie in David’s Father and Makeup Mess, Andrew in Andrew’s Loose Tooth and Tyya in Something Good. The other books are dedicated to the children whose names I used the first time I made the story up at a storytelling. Often when I am telling stories I will say I am going to make up a new story. I get a kids name to use in the story and I still don’t know what I am going to say. I just say whatever comes into my head and see if it’s good. Usually it isn’t. But sometimes it is very good. Lots of my books have started this way.”

I’m grateful Munsch has created so many brilliant stories by saying whatever comes into his head. I hope he knows how many people his stories have touched and how his words are the foundation of so many wonderful experiences and memories.

Thank you, Robert Munsch.

shelley.cook@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @ShelleyAcook