Customer Reviews

The Munschworks Grand Treasury

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book was recommended to me for my children by a 1st grade teacher. I was reluctant to purchase it at first because of the price and because I had never read a book by Munsch. However, I decided to get it and, wow, are my kids happy. The book features many children's stories - most with silly goings on that keep my 7 and 4 year old boys in stitches. Every night for the last two months they ask to have one of the stories re-read to them. The outcome is always the same - laughter. This is an excellent work because it brings out the joy of reading for the kids. Definitely worth the money!

My favorite story is Thomas' Snowsuit by Robert N. Munsch. It is about Thomas and his mother and his teacher fighting. My favorite part is when Thomas is wearing the teachers dress. I also like when Thomas gets the teacher and the principal back into their clothes. This book is funny. You can't live without it! By Katie

From the day we brought this book home, my son has been begging me to read him the stories over and over and over again. He never seems to get tired of them! His other books are gathering dust on the shelf while he memorizes every story in this one. I highly recommend it.

approximately 400 pages, beautiful illustrations, relevant and humorous stories. I enjoyed the book as much as my four year old daughter did.

I was initially charmed by Robert Munsch's early stories like "The Paperbag Princess" and "I Have To Go". So I bought the entire Grand Treasury thinking the same quality would be present in his other stories. Instead his later works border on creepy mysticism. Particularly the last story "A Promise Is A Promise" is quite bizarre and frightening to my young (6 years old) reader.

As a child growing up in Canada during the 1980's, I couldn't have avoided Munsch if I'd wanted to. So many of his books are practically culturally-required reading for more than one generation, I'm pretty sure they'd revoke citizenship if you didn't like at least one of his stories.

My favorite in this collection is also the one that was my favorite of his when I was little-- The Paper Bag Princess-- it's a delightful story with the added bonus of having a smart female heroine that can stand up for herself and realizes after saving the prince that he's not all that great and she's better off dumping him!

It's good to see so many of his classics collected in a nice hard covered collection and I'll try to hit some of the highlights for those of you that are not familiar with his work.

Jonathan Cleaned Up - Then He Heard a Sound was always my little brother's favorite. He used to say that he HAD cleaned his room up like he'd been asked but just like poor Jonathan, a subway's worth of commuters had trampled through his room and left it a mess again. This story is one of those "giggles guaranteed" tales that your kids will probably want to hear again and again.

A Promise is a Promise is probably my second-favorite (first place goes to the tragically out of print "Giant, or Waiting for the Thursday Boat"-- find a used copy on Amazon!) for the beauty of the illustrations. The story is quite frightening though and is best skipped over if you're reading to a young child as it deals with very frightening creatures that live under the ice. The girl, of course, manages to outsmart them and save the day, but it's still pretty freaky for a young kid.

I Have to Go! and Thomas' Snowsuit both deal with how kids always seem to find the wrong moment to need to use the washroom. It's funny (and familiar) territory for kids and their parents.

I could go on and list the strengths of each of these stories. They all have something delightful, unexpected, or totally relatable about them and have all stood the test of time. The book itself is a very nice large size, perfect for reading with multiple children or just for sharing with one that really wants to see all the great detail in some of the pages. I can't praise it enough, and am thrilled that I now have a son to share these classics with. There are some notable missing classics like Love You Forever (which my mother could never read to us without tearing up!), 50 Below Zero, Millicent and the Wind, The Dark (or Mud Puddle if you want a similar but slightly less frightening take on the same concept), The Boy in the Drawer-- honestly I could keep listing pretty much everything he's done. I wouldn't be fully happy without a "complete works" collection, so instead I'll have to settle for some of his truly best stories in one nice, durable volume.

If you are on the fence about this because of the price, I can pretty much promise that any child will find at least one story in here that they will keep asking for again and again. If you're looking for a perfect gift for a child, this should unquestionably be on your shortlist. If you're a parent looking for a reliable "go to" collection for bedtime stories, look no further! Happy reading!

My classroom loves these stories. Most stories are on the AR list also.

Robert Munsch books are wonderful! We learn, laugh and have fun with his books all the time. All my kids love them - from very young ages on up! My 11 yr old loves reading these to her little brother. My sis who has no kids laughed her butt off when she read to my kids. I recommend to all my friends.

Mr. Munsch has a talent for being able to see things from a kids perspective. Kids love all his stories.
He has a unique talent for connecting with a child's sense of humor

Robert Munsch is an author for all ages. I enjoy reading the stories to my students and grandchildren as much as they like to hear them.