Now, I hear from tons of his fans who tell me he was their pen pal. When I was adopted, he only had two books published, so in a way, me and my dad grew up together. Growing up, I didn’t pay much attention to my father’s work. David’s Father is about a girl named Julie who befriends a boy named David and discovers that his adoptive dad-a giant-is not nearly as scary as she expected. Robert and Ann Munsch adopted Julie Munsch when she was 5½ years old. (Photograph by May Truong) Julie Munsch, 45ĭavid’s Father (1983), Makeup Mess (2001) and Finding Christmas (2012)
In the following pages, these and other real-life children who were behind Munsch’s stories share their own memories of the author, and describe how his writing-and being in his books-changed their lives. A picture of a little girl in a hot-air balloon drawn by a reader who longed to escape the everyday monotony of her family’s Chinese restaurant was the spark for Where Is Gah-Ning? The protagonist in I’m So Embarrassed! was based on a boy whose mother practically insisted that Munsch come and visit her son’s Grade 7 class. Many of those stories were inspired by children Munsch met on his travels and through correspondence with readers. “The stories will be the last thing to go,” he told Shelagh Rogers.
What he did still have, he said, were his stories. He had stopped visiting kids at their schools, something he’d done throughout his career, all across North America. Munsch, the 76-year-old author of nearly 100 children’s books, told the CBC he was no longer able to write, drive or ride a bicycle. She still waits until I arrive home from a journey of 500 miles on the road traversing the delta and into the Ozarks.In October 2021, Robert Munsch spoke publicly for the first time about his dementia diagnosis. I know she will always see me as the little boy wearing an Arkansas Razorback button up shirt for three straight yearbook picture days, or the boy who left his kindergarten class 10 minutes early on the first day of school to go to her classroom. Her son starting a new job with a young bride in a town seven hours away. Chris Janson singing “Bye Mom” in the background as we spun through another progression in life’s story. It has been nearly a year since I danced with my mom at my wedding. Call your mom if you can’t make it to Thanksgiving because you are spending the day with your partner’s family, or are at Davis Wade Stadium to watch the Egg Bowl. You might be too busy balancing work, academics and new social relationships your freshman year to really notice time flying by but your mom misses you. To the seniors getting ready to start a new chapter, don’t forget your mommas.
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