Class Trip

Class Trip is a brand-new iconic matchup between Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko, one sure to bring a smile to anyone who holds nostalgia for these beloved books. In Class Trip, Sean and Stephanie are on a school field trip to a museum, and, while there, they get to witness some eggs hatching. They start with chicken eggs and move on to turkey eggs, then ostrich eggs, before asking the man at the museum to see the biggest egg he has. The man takes them downstairs to a very large egg that has already been cracked open, and so nobody knows exactly what used to belong inside this egg. Sean and Stephanie thought it would be funny to see if Stephanie could fit into the egg, and she could! They glued Stephanie inside the egg and played a prank on her teacher who was astounded that the egg could talk and do math, not realizing Stephanie was inside. When Stephanie jumped out of the egg, her teacher was so surprised that she fainted. Can you guess what Sean and Stephanie do with their fainted teacher?! Suffice it to say, they take the egg back to school with them after the field trip and prank their principal, a happening which plays out similarly to the prank at the museum.

Martchenko’s once again employs his classic watercolour illustrations which may, in fact, captivate readers far more than the actual story will this time. He adds in interesting Easter eggs – if you will! – on many of the pages, including a fascinating photo/drawing on the wall of the classroom that shouldn’t be there. Readers will delight in finding this little hidden gem and will also have them asking, ‘How can this be here already?!’

The actual story for Class Trip is somewhat lacking, however, and seems somewhat short, rushed, and haphazardly put together. I am a longtime Munsch-loving reader, still remembering when he came to my elementary school to tell us stories, and I wanted to love this new book with all my heart. Unfortunately, I focused on too many anomalies within the writing to thoroughly enjoy this Munsch offering. I know that sounds odd since all Munsch’s stories have ‘anomalies’ in them and are not supposed to make sense, but I got hung up on other trivial things. For example, Munsch is a master at repetition, particularly phrasing that sticks in your head. This book starts out where Sean and Stephanie “sat and looked at the eggs and looked at the eggs and looked at the eggs”, but then, on the next page, they “sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat”, but when they get down to the basement, they “looked and looked and looked”. Similarly, when the teacher finds out who is hiding in the egg, she faints, but when the principal finds out who is in the egg, he runs back to his office screaming.

As a long-time Munsch reader, these small inconsistencies are jarring to me and left something lacking in my enjoyment of this read. The ending also feels quite rushed, though Munsch does leave students with a fun math equation to figure out at the end (Pity, he gives the answer on the last page – adults be sure to cover this answer if you’d like your younger ones to try to figure it out for themselves!) Class Trip would be best suited for Kindergarten to grade 2 readers who probably will not notice these subtle differences between Munsch’s classic favourites and this new publication. Slightly older readers will enjoy this story primarily to figure out the math question and then will not go back for a re-read. Similarly, adults who love Munsch’s books will also give this a read through but not pick it up again for subsequent reads. If you or your little ones are Munsch collectors, then by all means add this book to your collection, but otherwise Class Trip is better borrowed from the public library for a one-time read.