Munsch\u00a0told CBC’s\u00a0Shelagh Rogers<\/a>\u00a0that he had\u00a0ongoing dementia.<\/p>\n“I can’t drive, I can’t ride a bicycle,\u00a0I can’t write. So it’s been really whittling away on who I thought I was,” he told CBC at the time. “My stories, strangely enough, are all there. The stories will be the last thing to go, I think.”<\/p>\n
In the wake of the article,\u00a0tributes\u00a0to the author started pouring in. His daughter, Julie Munsch, hopped on social media last week\u00a0to clarify that her father isn’t dying. In\u00a0a post shared\u00a0on the official Robert Munsch Facebook page, she said he made his choice\u00a0to use MAID five years ago. She emphasized that her father is still doing well and isn’t going to die “anytime soon.”<\/p>\n
‘Every Robert Munsch\u00a0character is flawed’<\/p>\n
“A Robert Munsch title is is often the first book that a parent reads to a child,” Atkins\u00a0said, reflecting on the depth\u00a0in\u00a0each of the stories.<\/p>\n
“Every Robert Munsch character is flawed. I think we can start to see our own flaws in those characters. Particularly from a\u00a0child’s standpoint, but also from a parent standpoint… You don’t experience that a lot in in children’s literature.”<\/p>\n
Brian Holstein is the host of a tradition in Guelph called Tea ‘n’ Tales\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a regular summer storytelling event held\u00a0at the Enabling Garden in Riverside Park for the past 18 years.<\/p>\n
Munsch has been an esteemed part of the storytelling crew and every time he shows up\u00a0he\u00a0attracts\u00a0a crowd of hundreds of people.<\/p>\n
“Two years ago\u00a0we had over well over 1,000 people come,” Holstein said.<\/p>\n
“Another year when he was still signing books, he had a two\u00a0hour wait and people were willing to wait in line to say hello, have a book signed by Robert and have their photograph taken with him.”<\/p>\n
![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/robert-munsch.jpg\")
Robert Munsch has a 50-year legacy working and volunteering in the city of Guelph, Ont. (Scholastic Canada)<\/p>\n
He says Munsch is a true storyteller on stage.<\/p>\n
“Robert does not read the stories. He’s a storyteller. He tells the story, and there’s no book in front of him. There’s no script, no teleprompter… It’s a performance.”<\/p>\n
Holstein\u00a0says the hundreds of people who come to see Munsch perform in Guelph are sometimes coming from far\u00a0away. There have been\u00a0visitors from all over the country \u2014 and all over the world, including the United States, England, Sweden and Australia.<\/p>\n
![\"smiling](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/veronica-tonga.jpeg\")
Veronica Tonga grew up reading books by Robert Munsch. She’s excited to pass on her love for them to her seven-month-old daughter Matilda, whose favourite book is The Paper Bag Princess. (Aastha Shetty\/CBC)’Big part of my upbringing’<\/p>\n
For Veronica Tonga, who grew up in Guelph, Munsch books were\u00a0a childhood staple.<\/p>\n
“He would do readings at the River Run Centre. That would always be a big event… He was always so fantastic.”<\/p>\n
Tonga is ready to pass her love for the books onto the next generation, to her seven-month-old daughter Matilda.<\/p>\n
“We have so many Robert Munsch books. We go to the library to check them out,” she said.<\/p>\n
“For our baby shower\u00a0we requested exclusively Robert Munsch books because we love him so much and he was such a big part of my upbringing.”<\/p>\n
![\"smiling](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/nora-o-regan.jpeg\")
Nora O’Regan loves reading Love You Forever by Robert Munsch to her niece. (Aastha Shetty\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Nora O’Regan grew up reading the books at the Guelph Public Library\u00a0\u2014 and she’s still a big fan. Her favourite is\u00a0Love You Forever.<\/p>\n
“I just think it’s sweet because it has a baby in the book and I can also read this to to my niece too,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I [want to] tell him\u00a0that your books are amazing and you’re and it’s kind of\u00a0cool how you love to make a lot of jokes in your books. It’s so funny.”<\/p>\n
Reading Munsch books together is also\u00a0a fun activity for Guelph resident Jordan Zalis and his son Myko.<\/p>\n
“When we heard that Munsch is from [Guelph] and\u00a0would do\u00a0local appearances and things like that, we fell back in love with some of the stories,” he said.<\/p>\n
![\"smiling](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/happy-dad-and-son.jpeg\")
Jordan Zalis and his son Myko are often at the Guelph Public Library, reaching for books by children’s author Robert Munsch. (Aastha Shetty\/CBC)<\/p>\n
“Reading is\u00a0[Myko’s]\u00a0favorite thing in the world. He literally wakes up and he says ‘More books.’ So if people like Munsch\u00a0contribute to\u00a0this wealth of literature and storytelling that I loved growing up… it makes the world a better place.”<\/p>\n
LISTEN| Guelph Public Library holds a special connection to author Robert Munsch:<\/p>\n
The Morning Edition – K-WGuelph Public Library holds a special connection to author Robert Munsch<\/p>\n
CBC K-W’s Craig Norris took a trip to the Guelph Public Library yesterday to meet with CEO Dan Atkins to talk about beloved children’s author Robert Munsch. We hear\u00a0why the children’s author is so important to the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“I’ll love you forever.” Those\u00a0words from one of iconic\u00a0children’s author Robert Munsch’s most beloved\u00a0books\u00a0are perhaps a good way\u00a0to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-35230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758474011_799_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n