Munsch at Play

As young children, my kids were big fans of all things Robert
Munsch. Fortunately he wrote parent friendly books that could be
cheerfully
read again and again... For years I could count Munschless days on
my fingers. Then suddenly...you know how it goes...the man was out of
my life. Our kids grow up.
Recently I saw Robert's jovial vissage peering out at me from
the Orono Public Library's juvenile non fiction section. Of course I
had to check that out. It turns out that in Munsch at Play Irene
Watts has turned eight of his most popular stories into scripts for
children to produce.
My favorite has to be The Paper Bag Princess. A princess is
thinking about marrying her royal boyfriend. Suddenly a dragon
smashes the castle, burns up her fancy dresses, and carries the prince
off to its lair. All the princess has to wear is a paper bag.
Putting it on, she cleverly and valiently rescues prince far-from-
charming, only to be met with criticism about her appearance. She's
to come back when she looks like a princess. As if! She's nobody's
fool!
The book's biggest treasure lies in the two pages following the
table of contents. It talks about the many ways children can
improvise their own adaptations. Think about it. So much of
education today is designed for visual and auditory learners. Their
hands on, kinesthetic peers tend to be left out in the cold. Now
here's a way for children who learn best in active ways to develop a
love of reading and shine. The possibilities are endless!
On a personal note, February break is nice, especially not having to
get up at 5:30 to get my son off to school.
A great big shout out goes out to all our vacationing kids, teachers,
cafeteria workers, principals... May you have a wonderful vaca and
come back to school refreshed and healthy!
Julia Emily Hathaway

Sent from my iPod