Post by @globeandmail

The hero in Robert Munsch’s The Sandcastle Contest is named Matthew, after Matthew Luttman. His family lived down the street from Munsch in Guelph, Ont. “I felt kind of famous,” Luttman recalls when the book was released in 2005. Last year, Munsch and illustrator Michael Martchenko were invited to a local school to talk about the book. Munsch wasn’t well enough, so the real-life Matthew from the book stood in. For more than 50 years, Munsch has made himself a part of Guelph’s collective consciousness. Click the link in our bio to hear more residents’ memories of the beloved author. Video by Melissa Tait and Kelsey Wilson/The Globe and Mail. #RobertMunsch #Guelph #BookTok