Goodnight Moon

I have no doubt read this book before, but when the text for my course referred to it several times, I couldn't remember the book well enough to understand what my course text was saying. Thus, I check it out from my local library and thought that I would add a review here.

The story is a simple yet classic tale that has been used to put children to sleep for a very long time. A child, in the shape of a rabbit, takes account for everything in the room and then says goodnight to each item.

This book has been in publication for over 60 years and sold 14 million copies. Margaret Wise Brown won the Caldecott Medal in 1947 for a different book. Her accomplishments as a children's author put her on par with the greats! Translations have been made into countless languages as well. Opposite is a cover from one such translation.

The writing and drawings may be extremely simple, but they work well together to provide a calming tale. The front jacket of the book calls the illustrations "lulling." The purpose and the choices that the author and illustrator made were directed at comforting and settling down a child for sleep. Many of the drawings are in black and white, adding to the therapeutic sense and making the color photos all the more beautiful.

To be honest, I have trouble seeing this book in a library story hour. Children would be sleeping on the floor of the library. This book allows children to develop a vocabulary much like other classics like Brown Bear, Brown Bear and The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Children can point to the telephone and the red balloon when the adult reads the word. They can also hunt to find the mouse in every colored picture.

As with many classic texts, there a so many resources that can accompany this text and the publishers do well but selling different versions with toys attached. I found some "printables" on the HarperCollins website that might be great for activities at a library or in a classroom before nap time. Their website is http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/. Incidentally, as I attempted to find out what awards this book had won, I also discovered a game called "Goodnight Moon" based on the book. It was a matching/ memory game.

Bibliographic Information:

Wise Brown, Margaret. Goodnight Moon. Illustrated by Clement Hurd. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1975.*

*The original copyright for this book in 1947 by Harper & Row. I'm sure that book collectors would be happy to take this off some one's hands, should you find dusty copy in the attic.