By: Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Burlington Local-News.ca
Kevin’s family is very industrious and high-spirited. One morning, his father’s innocent pastime of constructing paper airplanes before work becomes an improvised family competition. Kevin’s dad makes one, and it soars. Kevin’s mom makes one, and it soars. Kevin makes one…and it nosedives straight into his mother’s cup of coffee. The second one he tries making lands in his father’s bowl of cereal, causing a messy splatter all over the kitchen table, which the family dog promptly laps up. That’s two failed take-offs in one morning.
However, the determination and industry of a child cannot be deterred by a few minor setbacks. After many more attempts to construct the perfect paper airplane, Kevin finally produces one on the school bus that’s picked up by the wind and goes on its merry way. A job well done! But then Kevin’s perfect paper plane proceeds to zoom across town and terrorize everyone like some sort of trickster god. Wherever it goes, people scramble to try and catch it, destroying everything around them in the process. It’s an epic battle between childhood construction and adult destruction, with childhood construction always coming out the winner.
This is the premise of Canadian author Robert Munsch’s The Perfect Paper Airplane, published by Scholastic Canada on October 21, 2025. Written for preschool-aged children and illustrated by Munsch’s longtime colleague, Burlington-based artist Michael Martchenko, this is a short, sweet, and humorous tale of a young boy who discovers that his innovation has a wider-spread reach than he initially anticipated. A simple invention, a simple piece of paper folded purposely, is capable of so much.
Kevin’s teacher trashes the classroom trying to catch the airplane out of the air. He ultimately fails. Kevin’s father and his coworkers on a lobster fishing boat fall all over themselves when it circles them. They can catch seafood no problem, but a paper airplane? Forget it! Munsch’s message is clear: a kid is capable of doing something so spectacular that not a single adult in their life can put a halt to the unstoppable force that is their creative process.
The teacher said, “Who made that paper airplane? No paper airplanes in this class!”
“It’s my paper airplane,” said Kevin. “It’s my perfect paper airplane, and it followed me to school.”
The back of the book even includes instructions for readers on how to build their own paper airplanes. Munsch wants his young readers to emulate Kevin and let their hard work and ideas take flight. It’s easy; all you need is a good piece of construction paper and some practice.
Martchenko brings Munsch’s story to life with his usual signature artistic style. The characters have only black dots for eyes, yet their faces express a vivid spectrum of emotions, from astonishment to delight to exasperation. Also in Martchenko fashion, almost every page features funny and adorable little details that readers may miss the first time, such as a pair of mice nibbling at scraps under the teacher’s desk, and lobsters escaping their captivity in the midst of the narrative chaos. It’s a great book to reread just for an impromptu game of “I Spy.”
The colours pop off the page as they always do in Munsch-Martchenko collaborations. Every one of Kevin and his classmates’ paper airplanes is uniquely designed and coloured, representing the wide scope of children’s imaginations and their individuality. Just like snowflakes, no paper airplane is like another. And by the end of the book, all the airplanes have taken to the air just like a snowstorm.
A Perfect Paper Airplane is available at the usual online outlets and at your local bookstores with a children’s section. However, paper for paper airplanes needs to be bought separately.
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