Toronto, ON - In honour of Family Literacy Day, best-selling children’s author Robert Munsch went online January 27 for a live chat with Canadian children, teens and adults across the country. The special event, held 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. EST, January 27, was made available through www.ytv.com.

Chat-line comments and questions to Munsch poured in from Canadians coast-to-coast. Close to 5,000 messages were sent, with more than 500 online chatters reading and participating (and anywhere from 150 to 200 online at any given time). “I had a lot of fun,” says Munsch, who is honorary chair of Family Literacy Day. “To be able to be connected with so many kids and parents across the country, and to do it on Family Literacy Day, was a great experience.”

In the packed one hour, readers had the chance to tell the author directly how much they loved his books — one online chatter said: “You are so cool! I just can’t get over how awesome you are!!!!” — and to learn a great deal about a very candid and funny Robert Munsch. These included the fact that Robert:

• Wrote his first book at 35.
• Counts Dr. Seuss’s The Five Hundred Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins as his favourite book when he was young.
• Has 120 unpublished stories, and that “my family will keep putting out the stories after I’m dead.”
• Says his favourite day is Hallowe’en.
• Prefers Pink Floyd to the Rolling Stones.
• Has 8-1/2 size feet — “kinda small.”
• Broke his arm once when he fell out of a tree when he was 26.

When asked “How do you feel knowing that you’re making kids all over the world happy with your books?,” Munsch simply said: “I love it.”

“This was a fantastic event, and a wonderful way to celebrate Family Literacy Day,” says Christine Featherstone, president of ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation, creators of Family Literacy Day. It is held every year on January 27, with the support of numerous organizations and founding sponsor Honda Canada Inc.