Goodnight Moon

How many of you know the picture books The Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon? I do. How many of you know the writer? I didn’t.

Margaret Wise Brown.

I read a fascinating New Yorker article, “The Fairy-Tale War: How Margaret Wise Brown revolutionized picture books”. What a story! Brown was a picture book rebel.

“She rejected the orthodoxy in favor of stories that reflected the preoccupations of young children…When boys and girls are first exposed to reading, Brown argued, they are most engaged by stories about ‘tables and chairs, plates and telephones, animals they know’.”

Brown was more interested in words and rhythm and colors than she was in plot. She looked at kids and kid’s books differently. A one-woman wrecking crew, she changed picture books.

There is so much more I want to say. I think there is a podcast episode here (Not that we need more ideas). I’ll need to talk with Lory and see if she shares my thinking. Maybe we will do something. Goodnight moon.