(New York Times) – Robert Munsch wrote “The Paper Bag Princess,” “Love You Forever” and other classics by performing them over and over for kids. But his stories are slipping away.

After 50 years of publishing, Munsch told me, his ability to come up with new stories seems to have vanished. So, too, has all the time he used to spend with children, who in turn shaped the stories. Plots used to just appear to him, all the time and almost fully formed, as if they were limitless. But now they don’t. When, occasionally, Munsch thinks of an idea for a story, he waits for the narrative to reveal itself, and “nothing happens.” The story never comes.

It had happened in the usual, terrible way. Munsch started crashing his bicycle, so he stopped riding it. He stopped being able to fit his car into a parking spot, so he stopped driving. Instead, he took the bus or he walked, but then he started falling. In the years since his diagnosis, new symptoms have appeared. He has grown frail. He has trouble finding words; the other day, he couldn’t think of “dinosaur.” Or he finds the word but somehow can’t say it. He forgets that friends have come to visit. (Read More)