User:Sharkboysmom/sandbox

Reference assignment Part II
Upon reflection I have decided to analyze the information I have found on Robert Munsch. I found both the wiki source page and the Encyclopedia Britannica page to give basic information that is general knowledge to any parent who has read and listened to Robert Munsch. I also found the Canadian Encyclopedia to have some good basic information as well and it also provided good links to the official Robert Munsch website  as well as profile of Munsch at the Canadian Library and Archives. . Interestingly each site all had a small nugget that was missing from other.

Wikipedia -Robert Munsch
I found the Wikipedia to contain good basic information as well as recent information on Munsch. It also had links to Munsch's website and the his biography on Annick Publishing. Interestingly it doesn't contain Munsch had changed from Annick Press to Scholastic Canada in 1996, this was done to allow his books to be released at an increased rate.(Toller). I did find Wikipedia was the only online source that included the whole listing of Munsch's works.

Britannica - Robert Munsch
This entry missed a crucial piece of Munsch's life story. It neglects to inform the reader about Munsch's problems with substance addiction and his bipolar disorder. He also suffered a stroke in 2008 which is lacking in this article. I couldn't find the date this article was last edited but when I consider that the latest date mentioned in the article was when "he was awarded the Order of Canada in 1999". (Encyclopedia Britannica) I am inclined to believe this entry is outdated.

Canadian Encyclopedia
I also found this entry on Munsch to be missing some information. It was one of the few articles that made reference that Munsch earned his degrees while studying to be a Jesuit. It also misses the crucial information of the stroke and Munsch's public declaration of being bipolar and his substance addiction. It does make reference indirectly to the bipolar and abuse by recording a statement Munsch made in an interview. "When prompted to say what question he would like to be asked in an interview, Robert Munsch replied, "How has being a manic-depressive, obsessive-compulsive, recovered-alcoholic nut case changed your writing?""(Canadian Encyclopedia).

Library and Archive Canada
I found this site to have probably the most complete back history of the 4 encyclopedic/bibliographic sites yet it stops in 1994. As pointed out much more has happened to Munsch since 1994. For this reason I also found this site to be a bit of a letdown and dated.

Personal Robert Munsch Website
This site definitely had the most information. It has quite a bit of the author's history, almost too much as it appears to be written by him. He neglects to mention his awards but I have a feeling these are not as important to him as his storytelling is. I found the best thing about this website is that you can find the history of every book he has published. He has a story behind each one and he takes great pride in telling the reader this.

Other information I have found
While I was researching Munsch I found surprisingly few reviews considering how many books he has written. One funny story I found was a New York Time article about when they decided to revise their best-seller list in 1994. Given that the best sellers at the top of the list had remained the same since 1978 they were expecting to see the normal classics such as "The Tale of Peter Rabbit", "Where the Wild Things Are" or even "Goodnight Moon". (Dunleavey) To the amazement of everyone the book "Love You Forever" from a relatively unknown author and unknown publisher and had sold an impressive eight million copies. They had never even reviewed this book! (Dunleavey)

Other reviews I had found all pretty much sum up Munsch's works in this manner, he is a predictable writer and his work needs to be read allowed to be enjoyed at its finest. One review for "Alligator Baby" puts it the best "The Munsch battle lines are firmly drawn. Those who love Munsch will welcome Alligator Baby, and those who don’t, won’t." (Mcnaughton)

In the process of searching for information on Munsch I came across a printed biography entitled "Robert Munsch" by Frank B. Edwards. I enjoyed reading this biography that was written by Edwards based on many interviews and the cooperation of Munsch. I learned quite a bit more about Munsch. The book was published in 2009 but all the writing takes place before his stroke and his public admission o substance abuse and his bipolar issues. He does make reference several times in the book about how he frequently suffered from depression; also reference is made in the book to how he suffered brain damage in a violent attack while he was studying for his anthropology PhD. while living in Cambridge, Mass. (Edwards, 31). His memory was severly affected as well and he subsequently failed his doctorate exams. This resulted in his failing his doctorate exams and led to his decision to leave the seminary.(Edwards, 31).

Another thing that I found lacking on all these sites yet I knew quite a bit about because of my volunteering in school libraries is that Robert Munsch is the Honorary Chair for National Family Literacy day that happens in January. In the past he has visited different families as a prize for this special day. He is a strong advocate for literacy for children and particularly for families reading together. He has had his books published in several languages but an important thing has happened in the past three years. Three of Munsch's books have been published in Inuktituk, this is a big deal as many English story books do not normally translate well.(Krueger)

Finally one last point I would like to make, after 33 years and having written over 50 books Robert Munsch has finally published a Christmas book called "Finding Christmas". I have not found any reviews on this as it only came out this month. I have however read it and I can foresee it being very popular, it does fit the standard format of any Munsch book, yet read aloud it still has the Munsch magic. I particularly found it very endearing as the characters in the book are all three of Munsch's children.

My opinion on wikipedia vs other sources
To be truthful I found Wikipedia to be a good source for basic information. I did find both the Canadian Library and Archive as well as Britannica to be outdated. Both sites had no information from the past 15+ years. Also I found the Canadian Encyclopedia to be a fairly decent source but it too lacked some fundamentals. All in all, I found wiki to be a good place to start and it gave me some good ideas on which I could build more information. It also was the only site of the four that provided me with a comprehensive book list of Munsch works. Interestingly I found little information on Munsch's television works. Cbc produced "A Bunch of Munsch" which was a series of cartoons based on several Robert Munsch stories. Wikipedia had a small mention of this but little else. I really wasn't surprised to not find much about him on wiki, or any other encyclopedia as he is a very private individual, yet he has put himself out on display. His love for storytelling is renown, and he has always viewed himself as just that, a storyteller, not an author. All the articles seemed to miss that point. As I have said I was not surprised to find much information on Munsch yet I was surprised how much more complete the information on Wiki was compared to the other sources. The only site that contained more information was the personal website of the author, yet I was a bit surprised as wiki's site had more up to date personal information on Munsch.

Quilt of Belonging
For years I have shared the quilting bug with my mother. She was the one who first heard of the Quilt of Belonging and has spoken of it since the concept was first announced. We finally got to view the quilt in person and it was even more breathtaking in person. There is very little information on this amazing quilt that celebrates the ancestral heritage of Canadians. The squares on the quilt represent the Aboriginal groups of Canada, and the nationalities of all Canadian immigrants. It has been exhibited several times across Canada since its first showing at the Museum of Civilization in 2005. It was also featured at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010 and at the G20 summit. Presently it is at a museum near Montreal, QC until December of this year. Definitely a must see at some point in your life.

I found the wiki page for this to be very limited. However I was not surprised as I could not find an entry in either the Canadian Encyclopedia or Britannica. I do however have the books written by the person who originally came up with the concept. It contains the story behind the quilt, and it also has a page for each square to tell the story of the people who were involved in the design of each square. Also I think I may be able to find more information at the Museum of Civilization where the quilt was originally displayed.

Pervasive Developemental Delay not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS)
This is a little known form of autism that my youngest was diagnosed with when she was 2 years old. It is often given to a child who meets some but not all criteria of autism diagnosis. I find that there is much misinformation about autism in the media and that not everyone really knows what autism is, in any of its forms.

Again, there was little said on the wiki page for this form of autism. The same is true on the Encyclopedia Britannica page as well. Both sites do provide links to more websites that give significantly more information, although one of the links for Wiki is no longer available.

Robert Munsch
He is the favourite author in my household. Much time has been spent sharing his books, listening to his live readings and even watching the CBC program “A Bunch of Munsch” in our house. He is a remarkable man with many difficulties, yet he has always managed to make his books magic.

The wiki for Munsch has surprisingly little information, very little in the way of a bio but very comprehensive in the listing of his works. The two encyclopedias gave much more information on his biography and mentioned only a few titles. I did like how the Canadian Encyclopedia shared a link to the Canadian Archives which gave a very impressive biography. All entries gave links to his website.

The Quilt of belonging links
http://invitationproject.ca/ourstory.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilt_of_Belonging

PDD-NOS links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDD-NOS

.

Robert Munsch links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_munsch

.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/robert-munsch

http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/301/ic/cdc/heirloom_series/volume5/290-291.html