50 Below Zero

by Robert Munsch, Michael Martchenko (Illustrator)

Jason’s dad falls asleep everywhere … except in his own bed. All night long, Jason gets woken up by strange noises that lead him to find his dad in the most unexpected places—from on top of the refrigerator to the freezing cold woods outside his house. In order to finally get a good night’s sleep, Jason musters up all of his resources and comes up with a most unexpected solution—tying his dad’s toe to the bathroom doorknob to keep him in place.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Canada, Humor, Family, Juvenile

24 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1988

About the author

Robert Munsch was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Fordham University in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and from Boston University in 1971 with a Master of Arts degree in anthropology.

He studied to become a Jesuit priest, but decided he would rather work with children after jobs at orphanages and daycare centers. In 1973, he received a Master of Education in Child Studies from Tufts University. In 1975 he moved to Canada to work at the preschool at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario. He also taught in the Department of Family Studies at the University of Guelph as a lecturer and as an assistant professor. In Guelph he was encouraged to publish the many stories he made up for the children he worked with.

Munsch's wife delivered two stillborn babies in 1979 and 1980. Out of the tragedy, he produced one of his best-known books, Love You Forever. This book was listed fourth on the 2001 Publishers Weekly All-Time Best selling Children's Books list for paperbacks at 6,970,000 copies (not including the 1,049,000 hardcover copies). The Munsches have since become adoptive parents of Julie, Andrew and Tyya (see them all in Something Good!)

Munsch has obsessive-compulsive disorder and has also suffered from manic depression. In August 2008, Munsch suffered a stroke that affected his ability to speak in normal sentences. He has recovered enough that he is able to perform live, but has put his writing career on hold until he is fully recovered.

Reviews

[Mariah Roze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a funny, cute story!

[Tina Loves To Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a Children's book that I read to my twin boys. I have to say this book was so much fun to read, and I found this story to be funny and so cute. My boys laughed so much while I read this book. I loved the pictures so much. I did not love the ending of this book because I just found it not to be an ending. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher (Annick Press) or author (Robert Munsch) via NetGalley, so I can give an honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do something about the Papa who sleepwalks and make the child sleep.

[Chantel · Rating 4 out of 5]

As part of their ‘Early Reader’ re-release, some of the classic works of the beloved Robert Munsch have been adapted to include a guide that is placed to help a young reader explore sounds, consonants, character voices & plot comprehension.

Poor Jason is simply trying to snuggle in for the night & find himself in his favourite sleeping place, ironically the same place he wakes to find his father has taken; the top of the refrigerator, the top of the car in the garage, & against a tree in the woods.

This story is silly & for no reason at all, it works to bring a smile to the face of the reader. Nothing much happens; Jason is chasing after his sleep-walking father as he wanders around to the comforts unknown to the rest of us, cozy in our beds. Yet, with so little transpiring, the final reveal leaves one with a giggle. The matriarch wanders in the night to find that both Jason & his father are asleep in awkward positions in the kitchen.

These are the kind of goofy stories that leave room for a child to explore the events at large & are fun to talk about afterwards. No tangible themes are presented but, the plot functions by implementing tinges of reality into the illustrations. We all sleep, as does Jason & so too does his father, yet there they are wandering around at night. This ‘Early Reader’ edition will work well for young ones to explore the different venues the story could have taken. Overall, it’s just a fun story to read & that is reason enough to appreciate it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Annick Press Ltd & Robert Munsch for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[Dianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't get Robert Munsch, but Robert Munsch gets kids. When I read this to my son, the whole time I was thinking, "This is repetitive, this is weird, this is too silly." But my son had a huge grin on his face the whole time.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

BRRRRR! Sleep walking in the snow! WAKE-UP!

[Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

یکی دیگه از کتاب هایی که موقع تمیزکاری هارد پیدا کردم. واقعا انتظار همچین پایانی رو نداشتم :)))))))

[Dee Dee G · Rating 4 out of 5]

This poor child’s dad is stressing him out lol. Cute book.

[Storywraps · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a re-release for toddlers presented as a board book. Some of the text and pictures have been updated but the hilarious message is still the same and ready to be unpacked to a new group of lucky kids.

Jason hears funny noises in the middle of the night and when he gets up to investigate he finds his dad snoring....laying on top of the fridge. He shouts, "Papa wake up!" and that's when the fun begins. Jason goes back to bed only to be woken up time and time again finding his dad in very strange places indeed - like the top of his car and even outside in 50 below zero weather. Jason has a huge responsibility rescuing his dad over and over and trying to keep him safe. He finally uses his brain and concocts a plan to keep his dad safe by tethering him in one spot where he can't escape and keep walking off. You will love the ending, a special little twist that only Robert Munsch can pull off....let's just sum it up by saying...the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

This delightful zany book will have your kids laughing out loud. The re-vamped illustrations are classic and Michael Marchenko is a storyteller in himself with what he produces visually. I know your child will be asking for this often. You will hear the shout coming from the bedroom..."Papa wake up and read me that story one more time!"

[Dena McMurdie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite books when I was little and I am so happy to see that it still holds up so well all these years later. I'm really glad this is now a board book, because it is one of those classic stories that no child's library should be without.

I read it to my kids several times. They could easily pick up on the humor without any prompts from me, which doesn't happen as often as you'd think. The illustrations are fantastic. Michael Martchenko has a great style for storytelling. He is able to portray the scene without it being too simple or overly complicated. The pictures themselves are quite funny and had my kids pointing and laughing at each page.

Since this is the board book edition, the text and artwork have been simplified and edited. Even so, I feel like it holds up very well. This is definitely a good addition to your baby's library. They will like the pictures while they are young and enjoy the story as they become a toddler.

My blog: Books for Kids

[Teri · Rating 1 out of 5]

blah--really didn't like this dull book about a sleep-walking dad when it's 50 below zero.

[Hillary Forrest · Rating 5 out of 5]

I selected “50 Below Zero” by Robert Munsch as my second TumbleBook choice. I viewed this book on LOV (Library of Virginia) using the following link: http://www.tumblebooks.com/library/as.... My recommending source was Professor Kimmel, through her course I was required to review a TumbleBook. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience as well as this selection.

The illustrations in this book are incredible. TumbleBook, since electronically control, incorporates movement into the illustrations shared with the reader. For example, in this book the young boy’s father fall asleep in the bathtub as he is sleeping you can see a bar of soap go up and down while he snores. This creativity and continuous movement adds to the reading experience!

I loved my experience with TumbleBook! Since this experience, I have shared many books with my son using the online website. He loves technology and I struggle making during the time he spends with technology to be educational. This resource has been a great choice for me to encourage his educational development! The excitement expressed by the readers as they read makes him laugh. This particular book was entertaining because the young boy, Jason struggles finding his father who sleeps walks. He finds him in various locations during the story and eventually his father sleeps walks outside when it is fifty below zero!

I will use this approach to reading in my classroom as an independent station to promote book exploration. I could create critical thinking questions for “50 Below Zero” for students to answer after reading the book online. After reading this book, I could ask students to recall a time that they had to help their parent and write about it.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful story about Jason and his Papa. Papa sleepwalks a great deal in this story; even outside when it's 50 below zero! The fine detail in the illustrations has your eyes looking all over the page verses only at the text of the main characters.

I gave it 5 starts because both my children, at home and school, enjoyed this book. The repetition of "Papa, wake up!" (n.p.)captivates it's reader to giggles. My children at home quote that quite a bit when their father is asleep on the couch. For my students they enjoy quoting "This house is going crazy!" (n.p.) because I sometimes say or do silly things in class. Therefore, they enjoy saying that just because.

It is a good read to show children the reality of sleepwalkers with a little humor in it. It also introduces new vocabulary like "mukluks" in case you have an Eskimo or Alaska theme in your lesson planning. When reading this book to 1st and 2nd graders I used a lesson plan that was provided by www.tumblebooks.com and we focused on sequence writing (First, Then, Next, Finally or Last) to write about where Papa went everytime he sleep walked.

The Grade, Lexile, and Guided Reader levels are as follow:

Grade: K-2 , Lexile: 290L , Guided Reader: H,

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. Living in Iowa, we experience the temperatures really cold and this book is perfect for reading out loud to the classrooms that I sub in. As Jason is awakened by his father’s snoring, he finds him in the weirdest places, on top of the refrigerator and on top of the family’s car. Later on in the evening, Jason hears a sound in the woods and lo and behold he finds his father, leaning up against a tree snoring away in 50 below temperatures. Dragging his father home, this picture had me laughing, as we have Jason dragging his frozen father home by his frozen toes and his father is frozen stiff. Having to unfreeze his father, the bathtub is Jason’s solution but to keep him there, Jason must devise a scheme so he can get some much needed sleep. As mother finally awakens, she discovers what the two boys in the house have been doing all night. I love the illustrations and the use of color, it enhances the story. The fonts used in the story made the story fun to read as some of the words flow off the page and the words “Papa, Wake Up” are bold and call out to you. This is a board book so perfect for those little hands.
Thank you NetGalley for this book- what a winner.

[Victoria Cifarelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jason was sound asleep when he woke up from a sound. He saw his father sleep walking in the kitchen on top of the fridge. He went back to bed when his father was. After falling back asleep he woke up to another sound. He went to the bathroom and found his father sleeping in the bathtub and when he yelled for him to wake up his dad jumped up ran around the bathroom and went back to bed. Jason said the house was going crazy. Jason goes back to bed and once he hears another sound gets woken up again. After checking the kitchen and bathroom he finds his father sleeping on the car. He yells at his dad to wake up again his father woke up ran around the car three times and his dad went back to bed. The same pattern occurs again. But this time he finds his father outside in the snow. He gets all ready to go to outside in the snow. He finds his father sleeping against a tree. When trying to wake his dad up this time it was not working. Jason gets his father home and and puts him in a warm tub. This time Jason ends it. He ties a string to his father and ends the sleep walking. The story ends with the mother waking up and finding Jason on the fridge.

This is a really fun story for kids. Any child would love this story and get a good laugh from it.

[Erika Arechiga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jason's father is a sleep-walker. On one particular, snow night, Jason's father's sleepwalking wakes Jason up. Jason finds himself chasing his father around the house where he ends up in random places. Munsch uses humor in the illustrations, not just in the text. In one instance, Jason's father is suspended in the middle of the kitchen by his toe by a rope. The text is simple for young readers to understand too. Overall, this book was full of humor and a fun read. I read along to this book in a 3rd grade classroom and all the students loved it. They loved yelling like Jason to wake Papa up. They anticipated where Jason's father would end up next and were eager to find out. This is a great read for a snowy day and to practice predicting events in a book because of its repetitive fashion. I could see myself using this book with younger grades, but would like to keep it for my family.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this one! Such a funny book about a boy who has to keep track of his sleep-walking father at night. Hear Robert Munsch read it aloud at http://robertmunsch.com/books. There are no pictures, just an audio of him reading the book. This would be a great way to practice visualizing. It's also fun for sequencing because the students would have to remember all the places the father kept going while sleepwalking.

[Sinem Gülen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sleepwalking father and a mother who doesn't wake up during the night. 👱‍♂️👱‍♀️

[Anthony]

Classic bro

[Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it because the father was sleep walking. So funny!

[Michaela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd say this is a realistic, "what if" kind of book. I sleep walk so it definitely falls into real life for me. As for age range, I'd say Preschool to 2nd grade.

This book is about a young boy in charge of a sleepwalking father who ultimately goes out the front door when it is 50 below zero outside. Our young hero dutifully brings his father back after putting on several layers of clothing.

I found this book on the Tumblebooks database. These books are read aloud. A reader can have a huge impact on a story. I have to wonder what I would have thought about this story if I had read it myself. I did not care for the reader and I am afraid it colored my perception of the story. For me, the story didn't resolve in a satisfying way. The little boy finds a way to keep his father from leaving the house again but in the end we find out that the little boy is a sleepwalker too. Of course, our experiences color our perceptions of things and, since I am a sleepwalker, it could be that this story hits a little too close to home for me to see the humor of the situation. What I did like about the story was the repeating phrases. I could see a group of kids joining in with those. Also, this may be a good way to introduce a research topic for the older students. They could potentially research articles about sleepwalking. Or, we could look up the term onomatopoeia and learn about that. There seemed to be a lot in this story.

The visual appeal was very fun on Tumblebooks! The graphics had movement even though it looked like it should just be a static picture book. I enjoyed Tumblebooks and I could see a child getting a lot of benefit from it too. The words and pictures are there along with someone animatedly reading the book.

[Kimberly Bower MLIS (gladeslibrarian) · Rating 1 out of 5]

FIFTY BELOW ZERO by Robert Munsch was originally published in 1992. This board book is an adaptation of the original. While the intended audience for the original story is 4-7 years, the intended audience for the board book has dropped to 2-5 years.

Basically, when looking solely at the text and pictures of this adaptation, I don’t get the point. It does bring questions to mind. For example, why does it matter that the boy’s dad kept waking him up with his sleep-walking, and why did it no longer wake the boy up once it woke his mom up? Why didn’t it wake her up earlier? Also, the young main character seems too small to be able to drag his dad inside and put him in the bath, etc. To me, these aren’t “suspend disbelief” questions to be answered with a child young enough to relate to the book’s picture book format.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary digital review copy. I was not required to write a review. Opinions are my own.

[Keani Meier · Rating 3 out of 5]

50 below zero by Robert Munsch
One cold night Jason hears a noise. He found his dad sleeping in the kitchen he brings him back to bed. Later that night Jason found his dad sleeping in the bathtub, then the garage and last of all Jason's dad slept walked out of the door in to the snow. Jason took a sled and brought his dad home. Jason tied a rope to his dad's bed and to his father’s toe. When his dad started to sleepwalk again he was stuck stayed there rest of the night.
I would use this book as a tool for role playing, I would have groups of 4 one would act like Jason and the other would be the father one would be the director and the last would be the narrator they will take a part of the book. They will practice this then preform it to the class.
its a funny story that took me until the third time i read it to appreciated
Munsch, R., & Martchenko, M. (1986). 50 below zero. Toronto, Canada: Annick Press

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Read online as an e-book from the following website*:
http://www.tumblebooks.com.public.pho...?
Category=PictureBooks&isflash=1

Robert N. Munsch's children's book"50 Below Zero" read online was a lot of fun!! The book reads manually or automatically, moving along with a pre-recorded audio feed and animation of the original illustration. The plot reveals a sleepwalking father, and his son, Jason, who tries to stop his attempts to sleepwalk in less than opportune settings. His father sleepwalks out the front door into "50 below zero" snow, and Jason sees this as the last straw, resorting to a string tied to his father's big toe as an anchor. Includes a surprise twist at the end!

Themes: Sleepwalking, Snow, Humor, Online book.

[Damera Blincoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of 50 Below Zero by Robert Munsch
Publication Date: July 4, 2013
Publisher: Annick Press Ltd.
Age Group: Children’s Fiction
Format: NetGalley

Jason wakes up to find his father asleep on top of the refrigerator. What ensues throughout the night is a child keeping his sleepwalking father safe. Parents are supposed to keep children safe, so Jason does the same for his father, even when finding him asleep outside in the snow. This book would be great for storytime. The illustrations are bright and the story can be told within five minutes. It would also be great for asking group questions, like where do they think that Jason will find his father sleeping next. This an awesome read.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a hilarious book, and is even funnier when listened to as an animated audiobook on Tumblebooks, which is available for free as one of the online resources from our local library. We've watched this book many times and the narration is wonderful!

The sleepwalking father ends up in the oddest places and the little boy is always coming to his rescue. It's a little alarming that the Dad ends up frozen stiff in the "50 below zero" outdoors, but it's just a book, and a silly one at that. Our girls thought it was great and ask to hear it again and again...and again.

[Laura Mincey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is quite funny! Jason just can't catch a break one cold, winter's night when his dad keeps sleepwalking and falling asleep in random places, like on top of the refrigerator and the garage! With each transition that the noisy, sleepwalking father makes, Jason wakes up in anger and tries to get his father back into bed! The noisy father makes it outside in his sleepwalking in the COLD COLD night, 50 below zero, and Jason brings him back inside once and for all, by tying him up to the bed. In the end, we learn that Jason is just like his dad and sleep walks, too! Kids will love to read this book because it is hilarious!

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is for the board book. Reviews of it should not be mixed-up with the book proper, but, alas, they are!

I thought this would be a board book edition of the 1985 picture book "50 Below Zero". One of my favourite Munsch books. Instead it is an adaptation of that book, which has had the text simplified and the art has also been revised. The basic plot of the original story manages to come through fine enough but its rollicking humour is inevitably lost in this simplification. If you want a book baby can chew on, this may be your way to go. But I'd rather read the original aloud, even to toddlers. This will be a personal preference as to which you chose.

[Janine Abraham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a hilarious story about a boy who wakes up to his dad sleep walking throughout the house. The book possesses a repeating pattern that makes the story evolve and continue. The boy wakes up to the same noises each time, reacts with the same thought, and does the same thing. However, the author throws in an interesting change of structure at the end when the mom wakes up to find both the dad and son sleep walking. I think this would be a good book to read to a class to show that endings can be a surprise and that you don't always have to follow a set structure when you're writing.

[Sam Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

My nephew ADORES this book, and it is thanks to him that I got it out of the library. It has a lot of repeating sections that you can just HEAR a kid shouting (and indeed, "PAPA WAKE UP!!" was something Danny happily shouted on every page). I didn't really think that the illustrations were anything special, but it was definitely funny to see the dad sleeping on top of the fridge and the car and frozen stiff outside and tied up in mid-snore in the kitchen.