Similarly, nothing is wrong if Julie wants to dress up in the most extravagant second hand clothes. There is nothing wrong with Julie wearing no makeup just as there is nothing wrong with her wearing the most dramatic makeup. While I recognize that the message was meant to communicate that Julie didn't need makeup to be beautiful, it inadvertently also communicates that Julie should look a certain way to fit in. The book concludes with Julie spending her money on clothes for dress up and her parents having a similar reaction of shock/disappointment. Realizing that she did something wrong, Julie takes off all of the makeup and sells it to other girls in the neighbourhood and she discovers that she is most beautiful without the makeup. Shocked, her parents and even the mailman yell and faint in surprise when they see her. Excited, she puts on lots of makeup and accessories and goes downstairs. In Makeup Mess, Robert Munsch tells the story of Julie, a young girl who saves up all of her money and spends it on makeup. He has recovered enough that he is able to perform live, but has put his writing career on hold until he is fully recovered. In August 2008, Munsch suffered a stroke that affected his ability to speak in normal sentences. Munsch has obsessive-compulsive disorder and has also suffered from manic depression.

The Munsches have since become adoptive parents of Julie, Andrew and Tyya (see them all in Something Good!) 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). Out of the tragedy, he produced one of his best-known books, Love You Forever. Munsch's wife delivered two stillborn babies in 19. In Guelph he was encouraged to publish the many stories he made up for the children he worked with. He also taught in the Department of Family Studies at the University of Guelph as a lecturer and as an assistant professor. In 1975 he moved to Canada to work at the preschool at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario. In 1973, he received a Master of Education in Child Studies from Tufts University. He studied to become a Jesuit priest, but decided he would rather work with children after jobs at orphanages and daycare centers. 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. Robert Munsch was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Something good munsch