Robert Munsch’s latest grounded by terrorist threats

After the Christmas Day terrorist threat aboard a Detroit-bound plane, the public has had to deal with longer wait times, intrusive full-body scanners – and now the delay of the latest book from Robert Munsch.

According to the Toronto Star, the Canadian children’s author was planning to release his next book, Temina’s Dolls, at the end of 2010. However, newly heightened airport security and carry-on restrictions seem to have rendered the story inappropriate for the time being. From the Star:

“We were going to do a story on a little girl who smuggles all these dolls onto a plane, but then that thing happened in Detroit,” said Munsch. “Scholastic calls me up in a panic saying, ‘Hold everything, that kid couldn’t smuggle anything onto the plane, she’s lucky to get onto the plane herself.’”

Munsch said he had no problem with the change, and even chuckled about the coincidence of a story of his clashing with a real-life situation. He is now in talks with the publisher on his next project.

The book tells the story of a little girl with 27 dolls, who learns the value of sharing. You can see where the problem lies after reading the book (which you can do, since Munsch posts his unpublished stories online):

“NO!” said Temina, “You may not look in my backpack. My backpack is top secret. Even my mom does not know what is in my backpack.”
“Right,” said the man. “But if I do not look in your backpack, then you do not get on the airplane.”
“Well,” said Temina, “OK.”
So the man unzipped the backpack and all the dolls unscrunched and uncrammed and went flying all over the airport.
“AHHHHHHHHHHH!” yelled the man, “HELP!!!”
All sorts of policemen and soldiers came running and pointed guns at Temina and her dolls.
“IT’S JUST DOLLS,” yelled Temina.
“WE’RE JUST DOLLS,” yelled the dolls.