Robert in Rigolet!

Twenty years after visiting a small fishing village in Labrador, Robert Munsch returned to Rigolet in late May to celebrate the release of his 30th book with Scholastic, Give Me Back My Dad! This book was the winner of Scholastic Canada's Pick-a-Munsch contest, an online vote that took place at www.scholastic.ca in the fall of 2010. Readers were encouraged to vote for their favourite of three stories set in different areas of Canada. With a groundswell of support drive by local media outlets and enthusiastic fans from Rigolet, a town of approximately 300 people, the charming story about the ice fishing adventure of a young girl and her father secured 43% of the total 170,000 votes!


Munsch was reunited with Roger Shiwak and Cheryl Allen, the father-daughter pair who inspired the story that became Give Me Back My Dad! Cheryl was 12 years old when she and her father first took Munsch ice fishing; she is now the mother of two young daughters who met him on this visit. After spending the day at the local school, Northern Lights Academy, Munsch strolled the town's waterside boardwalk (partly constructed out of lumber from the original schoolhouse Munsch visited 20 years ago) with students and staff. He was then the guest of honour at a community dinner, where he got to see some of his own stories performed by the school children in both English and Inuktitut.

Here are some photos of Robert's visit to Rigolet!

Robert Munsch with Cheryl Allen and her daughter, Megan. Robert met Cheryl and her father, Roger Shiwak, almost 20 years ago on a fishing trip in Rigolet, Labrador and they were the inspiration for Give Me Back My Dad!

Four generations of the Shiwak family hosted a family dinner for Robert when he was in Rigolet. Roger Shiwak is the man in the grey sweater.

Munsch walked along the town's waterside boardwalk with students and staff from Northern Lights Academy. The boardwalk is partly constructed out of lumber from the original schoolhouse Munsch visited 20 years ago.

After a community dinner, the school children from Northern Lights Academy put on a performance for the guests which including drumming, throat singing, and performing some of Munsch's stories in English and Inuktitut. Munsch then told a few stories to the children.

Twenty Years Ago...

Thanks to over 170,000 votes from fans all over Canada, Robert Munsch is heading to Rigolet, Labrador at the end of May.

The cover of Munsch’s newest book, Give Me Back My Dad!, was inspired by Rigolet, Labrador native Cheryl Allen. Linda Browne explains more in the May, 2011 edition of Down Home Life. Click on the images below to read this story.

Creating a Book

How do the pictures and words come together to create a book? When you look at a book, it's hard to imagine that it all starts with just some words typed on a page. It is a long process to create the illustrations to make the story come to life visually.

Often the illustrator and author live far apart and sometimes they don't even know each other. Illustrator Michael Martchenko and Robert Munsch have been working together for a long time though. Since they live in different cities, they meet at the Scholastic office with the editor and art director to share ideas about how what sort of pictures should be drawn.

Michael then creates a very rough sketch in pencil for each of the pages in the book.

After a few weeks, there's another meeting. Sometimes Michael has to make changes to his drawings, so he'll bring a big eraser with him. Once everyone agrees on the drawings, Michael begins painting and adding colour to the pencil drawings.

It can take a long time to complete the illustrations--sometimes a couple of months of working every day. It’s not just about the drawing and painting, there can be a lot of research involved too.

Most of the time, Michael has never been to the places where Robert's story ideas come from. So how does he know how to draw the picture so the details are accurate? We've posted a video so you can see Michael in his studio talking about creating the artwork for the books.

You can also see how Michael has taken a photograph of a Labrador tent and created an illustration.

Give Me Back My Dad! is on its way to the printers, now that all of the drawings are done. We’ll post more photos soon.

Robert returns to Rigolet

Robert Munsch will be travelling to Goose Bay and Rigolet, Labrador the week of May 23rd. It's been a while since he was there, but it was during his trip that he made up the story which inspired the forthcoming book Give Me Back My Dad!

Here's a journal entry from his last visit 20 years ago:

We are going out tomorrow with somebody named Roger. He has a kid named Cheryl and a wife named Lorraine, and he lives in a very northern-looking house. Roger and Lorraine are both natives of Rigolet. He is going to take us out overnight. We are going to go ice fishing and hunt seals and maybe see some moose and caribou.

There was much discussion about our clothes. Andrew ended up getting a new snowsuit and mukluk sort of boots and I was given a large total cover snowsuit and a new parka. They suggested I wear new boots and I said mine were okay and I shouldn't have done that because they weren't okay. Every time I went through the snow the seal wasn't very good and I got snow in the top of my boots and eventually my socks got quite wet. Had we had been out a long time, I would have had to stop and dry out my shoes or my feet would have frozen. I should have taken their advice. As usual, remember to take the advice of locals.

It was quite windy and snowy when we started out and it continued to get more and more windy very quickly. Roger's cabin, when we got there, was 12 by 12 with a low wood stove. It had bare insulation on the insides, a bed and a table. Sort of basic housekeeping. They proceeded to put up a Labrador tent - which is a large cotton tent with no bottom.

They cut down two spruce trees, pound one into the snow and then lash the other cut tree across the top to an uncut tree. This makes a pole to hang the tent from. Then they cut spruce branches and make a thick bedding. Then in goes a portable stove which is supported by three pieces of wood - each notched to hold the stove. The stove goes out through a metal attachment in the roof of the tent.

Fishing, the idea is to use the mechanical drill. Unfortunately the ice was 5 or 6 feet thick – too deep for the mechanical drill. Roger then got out his long spike-tipped spruce trunk and proceeded to wap at the bottom of the hole. Unfortunately the hole fills up with ice fragments and becomes harder and harder to wap. Eventually we did break through in one place, but only after we chopped a foot deep hole in the ice and then used the drill. Chopping the ice is a deadly job. Everyone traded off on doing it. Once we had water it was then easy. We would drill down as far as the mechanical drill would go, pour water down the hole, then wap away at the bottom of the hole and the ice fragments would float up to the top of the water. We caught only one very small fish however. The way it worked was to try one place and if the fish didn't bite pretty soon then we knew the fish weren't biting there.

After fishing we drove back up Double Mer to the camp. Once we were back at the cabin, we ate and then went into the tent and ended up telling stories and jokes. Everybody told something. I made up "ICE FISHING" about Cheryl and Roger. Roger told about the ghost sled that helps people lost on the snow. This was all while sitting and lying on spruce branches while the little stove kept the tent positively tropical. It was a wonderful storytelling.

I asked Roger Shiwak, “What do you do when somebody falls through the ice?” Expecting a long description of how you build a fire he said, "First you laugh at them,” and then he gave me the description of how they build the fire.

The big reveal of the cover

Here it is: the cover for Give Me Back My Dad!

The beginning of a book.

These are some of the first drawings by Michael Martchenko for Give Me Back My Dad!

Michael gets a copy of the story -- called a manuscript -- from the book’s editor. He, Robert Munsch, and the book’s art director and editor meet to talk about the manuscript and to look at photographs of the kid the story is about and where she lives. Sometimes Michael will do some quick sketches at the meeting.

Then he goes back to his studio and creates detailed pencil drawings to match the story. These are called linears. He shows them to the editor, the art director and Robert Munsch and they talk about the linears and whether they work for the story. They discuss whether the illustrations are accurate and whether they are funny, and they make changes. Once those changes are made, Michael makes a final copy of the drawings on art boards, and he is ready to paint!

We have a title!

No longer is the "Pick-a-Munsch" contest-winning book being referred to simply as "Story #2". The book now has a title: Give Me Back My Dad!

Illustrator Michael Martchenko is busy working on a cover and as soon as it's ready, we'll share it with you. In the meantime, watch this space for updates on the making of the book, Robert's plans for his trip to Labrador, and lots of other fun stuff.

Happy Family Literacy Day!