The Perfect Paper Airplane

Written by Robert Munsch

Illustrated by Michael Martchenko

Scholastic Canada

978-1-0397-1518-9

32 pp.

Ages 3–7

October 2025 

 

When Kevin's father, a lobster fisherman in New Brunswick, makes a paper airplane at the breakfast table, they're all impressed. Then Kevin's mom takes up the challenge and makes a paper airplane that flies around the kitchen three times. Definitely more impressive. But when Kevin makes one, it doesn't go ZOOOM! or ZOOOOOM! Instead, it goes SCHLORB. (Notably without any exclamation.)

From The Perfect Paper Airplane, written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko

There was nothing to do but practise, so Kevin heads to his fort to make one paper airplane after another, but they all go GESCHLURP into the pond. But just before heading to catch his school bus, Kevin makes one last paper airplane with purple and orange flames, and it goes ZOOOOOOOOOM! In fact, it zooms off so well that Kevin can't see it anymore, and he says to himself, "Well, that's that." (pg. 10)

From The Perfect Paper Airplane, written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko

But it's not the end of that incredible paper airplane. Kevin soon sees it keeping pace with the school bus, and then it flies into the classroom through the window and creates chaos. When he goes to meet his father's boat at the dock, the crew are busy trying to nab that same paper airplane. Days later, it flies through the family car as his mother drives to school.

 

Everywhere that paper plane soars and glides, mayhem ensues. Would that perfect paper airplane continue to cause pandemonium, or could it actually do good? 

 

This latest Robert Munsch–Michael Martchenko collaboration has all the elements that have made their picture books such favourites. There's the familiarity of a common childhood experience (making paper airplanes), the wonderful silliness of an extreme scenario (a paper airplane that goes on for days), and sounds with oomph (like "geschlurp" and "schlorb"). Robert Munsch bases his stories in reality but takes them into the dimension of improbability and gives us laughs at the playfulness of kids being kids. It's sweet, and it's funny. Michael Martchenko, who has illustrated over twenty-five books written by Robert Munsch, matches the story's whimsy with his playful artwork. From the breakfast table with its colourful and messy cereal, to mom in her curlers and bunny slippers, to the dock scene with laughing gulls, escaping lobsters, and drying socks, Michael Martchenko makes us see the ridiculousness of the paper airplane fiasco. And still, it's just a story about a kid who has fun with his family, who goes to school and who wants to achieve something. As silly as it all is, it's still very real.

From The Perfect Paper Airplane, written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko

I won't be surprised if young readers are inspired to try their hands at making their own perfect paper airplane. (Fortunately, there are how-to instructions at the back of the book.) Their planes may not fly for days or become a nuisance to their teacher or to a boatload of lobster fishermen, but the kids will delight with the opportunity for competition and accomplishment, and perhaps a tall tale or two.

Marvellous Munsch!: A Robert Munsch Collection

Written by Robert Munsch

Illustrated by Michael Martchenko

Scholastic Canada

978-1-0397-0696-5

184 pp.

Ages 3-8

August 2024 

What's better than a Robert Munsch-Michael Marchenko picture book? Six! In Marvellous Munsch!, young readers are treated to a hard cover collection of six fabulous stories by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Marchenko. So instead of trying to decide which picture book to give them for Christmas, get Marvellous Munsch! for an assortment of wild tales about ice fishing, wildlife, getting muddy, story writing and consumerism. And all stupendously ridiculous!

 

The six stories in Marvellous Munsch! are, in the order of their presentation:  Give Me Back My Dad!, Down the Drain!, Moose!, Put Me In a Book!, Too Much Stuff! and Hugs.

In Give Me Back My Dad! a father and daughter have the tables turned on them while ice fishing. As with each story, Robert Munsch also describes how he came to write the story.

From "Give Me Back My Dad!" in Marvellous Munsch!, written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Marchenko

In Down the Drain!, a fiasco in the bathtub becomes a dangerous but funny game of blackmail as water spills out and about and threatens everything. In Moose!, a moose comes to visit, and Luke has some difficulties getting his family to believe him. (Robert Munsch's note about the story has some interesting variations of the story he tells.) Put Me in a Book! focuses on a girl whose wish to become part of a book becomes a humourous reality but not how she expected.

 

At this time of year, Too Much Stuff! would seem a cautionary tale about consumerism but more about packing for air travel and how everything that seems necessary and can't-live-without may have happy consequences. Finally, Hugs! is exactly as it suggests: a story about a child who takes hugs from a variety of animals, all distinct but perhaps a little bizarre. (A porcupine? A skunk? A snail?)
 

Robert Munsch's stories have never failed to charm with the diversity of his characters, the circumstances of their outrageous situations, and their emphatic and repetitive vocalizations, like "Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!" in Down the Drain and Cheryl jigging her line "up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down" in Give Me Back My Dad! There's a reason he's a favourite of children around the world and Marvellous Munsch! reminds us of the wonderful medley of stories that he has told.

From "Give Me Back My Dad!" in Marvellous Munsch!, written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Marchenko

While kids, either those remembering stories told decades ago or new audience or readers to Robert Munsch's stories, will be enthralled with the laughs and the silliness, they'll recognize the art of Munsch's long-time collaborator Michael Marchenko. Though Robert Munsch has worked with other amazing illustrators, including Dave Whammond, Mike Boldt, Janet Wilson, Dušan Petričić and Jay Odjick, Michael Marchenko is the artist whose work is quintessential for Robert Munsch stories. He gets the goofiness of the stories in the scale of the circumstances, the shock and animation seen in characters' faces, and the liveliness of their stories. Michael Marchenko matches Robert Munsch's word for art and never gives us pause. And there's a telling note about their collaborative process at the of Marvellous Munsch!

From Marvellous Munsch!, written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Marchenko

If you know little ones who haven't been introduced to Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko's books–is that possible?–then they're in for a treat with Marvellous Munsch! It's the book that keeps on giving, with six tales to make them laugh at the ridiculous and the familiar. And if they already know of this dynamic youngCanLit duo, then there will be more reading and laughter in their future, whether for bedtime reads or Christmas tree snuggles.

Sounds Like Christmas

Written by Robert Munsch

Illustrated by Michael Martchenko

North Winds Press (Scholastic Canada)

978-1-44317-582-1

32 pp.

Ages 3-8

October 2019

Christmas should be a time of love and giving and family and celebration. But for many this seasonal holiday is a time to consume and outdo others in gift-giving and in displays of lights and such.  In Sounds Like Christmas, Robert Munsch with his celebrated illustrator, Michael Martchenko, takes on the competitive sibling rivalry of Lincoln and Georgia as they decorate the family Christmas tree with an odd assortment of unconventional ornaments that create noise, each child trying to outdo the other in their selections.

From Sounds Like Christmas by Robert Munsch, illus. by Michael Martchenko

After Grandma, busy with her baking, asks her two grandchildren to get off their devices and decorate the tree, the two set to work with lights and garland, candy canes and balls. But when Georgia adds a raucous woodpecker to the tree, it sets off a competition between the siblings for bigger and louder. Lincoln adds his large sound effects key chain, and Georgia her talking doll. Lincoln adds the neighbour's barking dog and Georgia grabs her exasperated, and hence loudly yelling, Grandma and sticks her on the tree. The tree becomes a cacophony of

Tweet! Tweet! Tweet!
Bzap! Bzap! Bzap!
Ma-ma! Ma-ma! Ma-ma!
Woof! Woof! Woof!
Aahhhhhhhhhhhh!

From Sounds Like Christmas by Robert Munsch, illus. by Michael Martchenko

But before things can be put to right, their grandfather with his snow blower, both making a clatter, get perched on the tree top and Michael Martchenko displays it all on a double-spread that requires the reader to turn the book sideways to appreciate the vastness of the noisy tree.

From Sounds Like Christmas by Robert Munsch, illus. by Michael Martchenko

With their Grandpa's familiar threat to many children at Christmas about no presents, and most of the noisy "ornaments" quietening down, Lincoln and Georgie withdraw to the kitchen to do their own Christmas cookie baking, sure in their knowledge that Santa Claus is the one to bring gifts. A final illustration reveals a surprise for all except for Lincoln and Georgian, undoubtedly safely tucked away in their beds.

Robert Munsch brings the ridiculous to the ordinary as he has done in so many of his  stories, whether classics like I Have to Go (Annick, 1986) or newer titles like So Much Snow! (Scholastic Canada, 2016). Here he brings Christmas together with enlisting the help of children and just reveals what many of us have known all along. Getting kids to help out may be the hard part for some parents and teachers but it's not surprising to discover that their help isn't always as you envision it. Of course most people would not tackle a job as we might–and that doesn't make it wrong, just different–but by giving a story in which two children go to extremes to ensure an incomparable tree with audio, Robert Munsch gives us a holiday tall tale based in a reality we all know.

It's always a delight to see Michael Martchenko's illustrations accompanying Robert Munsch's words. For many, there is no other illustrator for his works. Michael Martchenko's watercolour illustrations know how to meld the real with the wacky, here showing us kids playing on their technology (their body language is so authentic!) and then displaying a grandmother hanging from the tree by her apron strings. Except for the odd assortment of vocalizing adornments, this could be anyone's Christmas, for those who choose and are fortunate enough to have a tree to decorate.

Happy decorating for the holidays!

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

A French language edition, Vacarme de Noël, is also available from Scholastic Canada.

Vacarme de Noël by Robert Munsch, illus. by Michael Martchenko    9781443175838

So Much Snow!

by Robert Munsch

Illustrated by Michael Martchenko

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-4617-3

32 pp.

Ages 3-8

August 2016

The collaborative team that brought us Canadian classics The Paper Bag Princess (Annick , 1980) and Thomas’ Snowsuit (Annick, 1985) and so, so many more, have returned to celebrate the onset of the winter season with their newest release, So Much Snow!

From So Much Snow! 

by Robert Munsch, 

illus. by Michael Martchenko

Regardless of her mother’s concern of a coming blizzard, little Jasmine is determined to go to school.  After all, it’s Pizza Day and no one wants to miss Pizza Day.  So bundled up in her multi-hued coat and brightly-coloured hat, scarf, mitts, and boots, Jasmine sets out with enthusiasm amidst the early flurries, singing


“Neat! Neat! Snowy feet!
Snowy feet can’t be beat.
Neat! Neat! Snowy feet!
Snowy feet can’t be beat. 
Wintertime is fun!” (pg. 4)

Even when the snow starts accumulating, up to her knees and then up to her bum, she’s still singing a version of her “Wintertime is fun” song, though perhaps with a little less enthusiasm.  By the time she is in sight of the school, that final line of her song has become a question. And, when it is only the top of her hat that peeks out from the drifts of snow, Jasmine has revised that line to “Wintertime is no fun.” (pg. 13)

A frozen Jasmine is rescued by the snowshoed custodian and his St. Bernard, only to become the focus of the school staff’s efforts to defrost her.  The reader will soon realize that Pizza Day has become a snow day and the school is attended by a skeleton staff.  Still Jasmine came for Pizza Day and pizza is what she will have, though not as she expected.

From So Much Snow! 

by Robert Munsch, 

illus. by Michael Martchenko

In So Much Snow!, Robert Munsch brings his characteristic absurdity to a typical situation, bundling up his story of a child’s earnestness with a sing-song refrain that reveals much.  Playing on a child’s desperation to go to school for an anticipated treat, regardless of the weather, Robert Munsch makes what could have been a dangerous situation into one of silliness, even developing Jasmine into a character who begins to recognize the nonsense of her situation.  But it’s Michael Marchenko, whose artwork children always associate with Robert Munsch, who brings that folly to life, with his bold colours and textured details of clothing, blankets, and interior and exterior features. (Check out the principal’s checkered pants, the school nurse's flowered boots and the lost mitten pinned to the bulletin board.) Michael Martchenko, who has illustrated many children’s books beyond those of Robert Munsch (one of my favourites for teaching is Enough by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2000), will always be seen as the visionary behind Robert Munsch’s words; without his artwork, So Much Snow! would just be a cute story.  Together, though, Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko have created a snow day story to amuse children and gratify their teachers and parents who will understand completely the mind of a child determined not to missed out on something grand, regardless of a few metres of snow.

From So Much Snow! 

by Robert Munsch, 

illus. by Michael Martchenko