Doll tale can’t make it pass airport security
I cannot think of a more beloved Canadian children’s author than Robert Munsch. Go all Lucy Maude Montgomery (if you must) but realize there are literally thousands of modern teens who cannot relate to or even like Anne of Green Gables…but Robert Munsch. Well, Munsch tells so many stories in so many different ways that there is always something for every child to love.
I believe one of the earliest memories of bedtime for my own children revolved around reading Robert Munsch stories till they fell asleep. Each had their special favourite but the Robert Munsch story memory which sticks out most clearly in my mind was Isaiah Sender’s special favourite – “Love you, Forever”.
My children are all relatively close in age and there were only a handful of times growing up when they didn’t do things together and as a group. Although, there were exceptions; like the summer when my youngest, Isaiah Sender, turned 3. That summer was entirely out of the norm, and unfortunately, a traumatic experience for him. You see, it was really the first time he had been separated from his siblings. His older sister and brother left home to spend the summer with their grandparents – faraway and without us.
It was also the summer where he got to pick and choose exclusively what bedtime story would be read every night for two whole months. No taking turns that summer although it didn’t seem much like a ‘fair trade’ for being ‘left behind’. He made me read “Love you Forever” over, and over again. Not just every night, but literally two or three times every night. He got to know the story so well, that he would follow along repeating the words under his breathe to each picture as I turned the pages and read the story out loud. Isaiah Sender was nothing, if not consistent.
Every night, half-way through the book in the first reading, he would also stop me and ask me the same two questions; is this story true and will you love me forever? Yes, yes, and double yesses’ – I would answer. Afterward, he’d hunker down even closer to me and follow along the pictures until he finally felt safe and secure enough to fall asleep.
So why the trip down memory lane? A new Robert Munsch tale about a little girl who smuggles dolls onto an airplane got ‘delayed’ for publication. The Toronto Star.
A tale by the renowned Canadian children’s author about a child sneaking dolls on a plane has been put on hold given the heightened security at airports after the attempted Christmas bombing of a plane in the United States.
Since then, airports have implemented a number of measures, from forcing travellers to undergo physical pat-downs or even body scans to a ban on carry-on luggage.
“We were going to do a story on a little girl who smuggles all these dolls onto a plane, but then that thing happened in Detroit,” said Munsch. “Scholastic calls me up in a panic saying, ‘Hold everything, that kid couldn’t smuggle anything onto the plane, she’s lucky to get onto the plane herself.’ ”
Munsch said he had no problem with the change, and even chuckled about the coincidence of a story of his clashing with a real-life situation. He is now in talks with the publisher on his next project. Diane Kerner, director of publishing for Scholastic Canada, said the book will be postponed for “a bit.” “A lot of kids can’t take a bag on an airplane right now,” she said.
This cracks me up – a doll can’t make it pass airport security so therefore a doll tale can’t be published. Yeah, sure, sure, don’t we all feel safer now that our children fly without their comfort objects and tall tales?
