Mud Puddle

 

Mud Puddle

By Robert Munsch

Munsch’s first book, published in 1979, recounts the struggles of Jule Ann, who is forever being chased by a mud puddle. No matter what she does, Jule Ann always seems to be muddy all over. But with the help of two bars of soap and her willful determination, Jule Ann will prevail.

About

Mud Puddle was the first story I ever made into a book. I made a very wet spring in 1976 when I was working in a nursery.

The playground turned out to be a big mud pit and the kids always got a lot dirty whenever they went outside, but there wasn't much that the kids could do about it.

I had the idea that kids might like a story about clay. So I made up a story about a mud puddle that jumped on children from among the trees. The kids thought it was a great story. The first time I told her they went out to the playground and looked in the trees for mud puddles. They thought puddles of mud living in trees would explain why they got so dirty. I decided it was a good story.

The kids started asking for her and she told her every day for about two months. When I sent a bunch of stories to publishers, this was the one that was chosen as my first book, even though it wasn't the first story I ever made up.

Julie Ann, the kid in the Mud Puddle was one of my favorite kids at the nursery. She just happened to be sitting right in front of me when the idea for a Mud Puddle came to me. Now Julie Ann grew up and works for a travel agency in Toronto.

Mud Puddle has always worked well when I told her except once at the High Arctic in a small town called Spence Bay. When I told him there the kids didn't laugh. After I finished asking one of the kids, “What is clay?”

I've changed the words in the Mud Puddle 4 times since the book was first published, and the pictures have changed once.

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