Robert Munsch (Author)

Image from chapters.ca

Get Out of Bed is an older title (1998) from Robert Munsch, a prolific author who is, perhaps, most well known for his book The Paper Bag Princess. (Also excellent.) I selected this book as an example of the subtle ways Munsch injects gender balance into his stories. (I’ve listed more of our favourite Munsch titles at the end of this post.)

I talk a lot about Munsch in my book. I love that his books feature a mix of male and female protagonists doing things that are not always typical of their gender. My son and I stumbled upon Get Out of Bed at the library. It had been withdrawn and was for sale for only 50 cents so we decided to add it to our collection.

Get Out of Bed is the story of a girl named Amy who stays up late and cannot get up for school the next morning. It has the absurd humour that Munsch is known for, but it also includes many of the elements of gender balance that I look for: both parents are present and active in their kids’ lives; Mom is shown going off to work; Amy sleeps with a stuffed animal and a hockey stick; when she finally wakes, she is shown wearing a hockey jersey to school; the school’s principal is female and the teacher is male.

The kind of gender balance in this book is found in every Munsch story I’ve read, but it never seems forced. In his world boys can like pink, fathers can take care of their kids, moms can go to work, girls can be hockey stars, the tooth fairy can ride a Harley (see below) and it all seems perfectly natural. I concede that some of his protagonists can be a little over the top and occasionally bossy and demanding, but they usually learn their lesson in the end. With their crazy but relatable stories and chaotic illustrations, his books appeal to boys and girls of all ages.

Image scanned from our copy of the book.

Here are few other Munsch titles my kids have enjoyed:

• 50 Below Zero
  
• Mortimer (enjoyed more after we saw Munsch read it)
• The Paper Bag Princess
• Just One Goal
• Pigs
• Moira’s Birthday
• The Sandcastle Contest
• Look At Me

And, last but not least, Andrew’s Loose Tooth, with its black-leather-wearing, motorcycle-riding tooth fairy, shown at right.