Goodnight Moon

Author: Margret Wise Brown

Illustrator: Clement Hurd

Year Published: 1947

The Gist of It: A little rabbit is going to sleep and is telling everything goodnight before he does.

This is definitely a classic children's book and it has spawned many parodies. It is a bit dated as to what is in the room, for instance the fireplace. But I think that adds to the nostalgic feel. The inconsistent rhyming drives me crazy, especially the line "goodnight moon/goodnight cow jumping over the moon." I also don't like that the picture on the wall opposite the bed completely got ignored. I do realize that it was the illustrator who made the decision to draw it, but in that case perhaps there should have been more collaboration between them. Other than that I really like the artwork in this book; not so much the drawing technique which seems pretty standard, but for the alternating pages of images being in black & white and the entire room being in color. And definitely for how the room gets darker every time it gets shown, but the fire remains the same. 

On the Bookshelf? Yes. My sister gave it to me for my first birthday and I gave it to her baby because it is a nice simple book to read to little ones before bed.