Robert Munsch is an enormously successful children’s writer and Canada’s best-selling author. He has published more than 50 individual titles, and his books have sold many millions of copies in more than a dozen languages.

Robert Munsch makes his home in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, a small university city about an hour from Toronto. He is arguably Guelph’s most famous living citizen and much loved. In his honour, the Guelph Public Library has launched the Robert Munsch Discovery Portal which includes:

• Curriculum support materials for teachers, librarians, homeschoolers, and daycare workers including lessons plans and program ideas

• Dynamic media gallery featuring stories and interviews with Robert Munsch

• Entertaining games and activities for children of all ages

• Interactive map highlighting Munsch’s impact across Canada

As part of this celebration of all things Munsch, the Guelph Public Library, in partnership with the Friends of the Guelph Public Library, will offer The Robert Munsch Award, a $1000 Cdn award for the best short essay or position paper discussing the place or the impact of the writings of Robert Munsch in English Language Children’s Literature.

Eligibility:
Submissions are invited from undergraduate and graduate level university students in Library and Information Science, Children’s Literature, Early Childhood Education and related areas of study.

Eligible submissions should be between 1000 and 2500 words in length, must include a short letter of support from a university faculty member in an appropriate subject area and must not have been published previously.

Eligible submissions must be received no later than April 15, 2014.
Applicants will retain copyright of their submissions but must agree to give the Guelph Public Library permission to exhibit selected papers in the Library and on its website. All submissions will become part of the GPL Archives.

To submit:
Papers, together with a short note of faculty support, should be submitted to: munschaward@library.guelph.on.ca. Please include “Munsch Award” and the name and location of the applicant in the subject line.

For further information, please contact: munschaward@library.guelph.on.ca.

Evaluation:
Submissions will be evaluated by a panel of academics and librarians.

www.library.guelph.on.ca
www.friendsguelphlibrary.ca