Makeup Mess

I chose Makeup Mess by Robert Munsch. It was illustrated by Michael Martchenko and was published April 1st, 2002. This book is about a little girl, Julie, who saves up $100 to buy some makeup. She goes to the drug store and asks for all kinds of colorful stuff to put on. “I want some red lipstick, blue lipstick, black lipstick, pink lipstick, yellow lipstick, purple lipstick... I want one of everything you’ve got!” (Munsch, 2002, pg. 6). She goes home and puts it all on thinking she looks beautiful. She puts different colors on her eyes, cheeks and lips. She colors her hair purple and put tons of earrings in her ears. She goes down stairs to show her parents and they freak out. Julie wonders what is wrong with them because she believes she is as beautiful as a movie star. She goes upstairs and takes it all off to redo it. When she redoes it she does different colors but basically in the same places and to the same extreme. However this time she adds two rings in her nose. This time she believes she is as beautiful as two movie stars! (Munsch, 2002, pg. 14). She goes down again and they still freak out. Then she goes back up and cleans it all off. Whens he comes back down her parents tell her how beautiful she looks. She realizes that she doesn’t need to wear all that makeup to be beautiful. She realizes she made a huge mistake and sells it all for $300! (Munsch, 2002, pg. 20). The main character, Julie, was actually created after his daughter who loves makeup. This book teaches young girls that beauty comes from the inside. They don’t need makeup to be beautiful. I believe this book is suitable for all children. Also, Julie is a young black girl and both her parents are white. This brings in the idea that she was adopted. Julie has the power in this story. We hear her thoughts and actions. She is presenting the normal thoughts of a little girl. Many times girls see their mothers putting on their make up and they are just naturally curious. Most parents don’t punish a little girl who wants to experiment with make up because most girls want to know what make up is all about. I enjoyed the fact that Julie was African American and her parents were White. They were trying to teach her that she was beautiful just the way she is. This a great lesson to children because they can see that she isn’t the same color as them and she is also beautiful. 

Robert Munsch travels the world telling stories to children. He always stays with a family so he never has to stop telling stories. (Munsch, 2013). He stays with families of many races so many of his books include interracial characters. “I almost flunked first grade and also the second, third, fourth, and fifth; but my younger brother was in the grade behind me, and he was a brain and nobody wanted to have me be in the same grade as him, so they kept passing me. I never learned how to spell, graduated from eighth grade counting on my fingers to do simple addition, and in general was not a resounding academic success” (Munsch, 2013). He did, however, learn that he loved poetry. This turned into a love for telling children’s stories. When he was trying to figure out what he wanted to do, he spent some time in a daycare and found his love for children and telling them stories. He didn’t write many of them down but when he did they started becoming books. When he is on tour he is just telling stories to children at random libraries and schools. Many times he just makes up a story about a certain child in that room. He often names his stories after the children he tells them to. Overall, this book can be read to any child. I would recommend this book to put on any child’s bookshelf.