Goodnight Moon

Story

In a great green room, tucked up in bed, is a tiny bunny. "Goodnight room, goodnight moon." And to all the familiar things in the softly lit room—to the picture of the cow jumping over the moon, to the clocks and his socks, to everything one by one—the little bunny says goodnight.

Why we chose it

A gentle bedtime story for the very young.

Where it came from

Margaret Wise Brown (1910 –1952), an American writer of children's books, based Goodnight Moon on her own childhood ritual of saying goodnight to the toys and other objects in the nursery she shared with her sister. The story, emphasizing the ‘here and now’, inspired a new approach to storytelling.

Where it went next

Although Goodnight Moon had poor initial sales, it has never been out of print long and is now a best seller. It has been translated into many languages, adapted into a short animated video (Goodnight Moon and Other Sleepytime Tales, 1999) and an award winning game (produced by Briar Patch 1998).

Associated stories

Goodnight Moon is the second in Brown and Hurd's Over the Moon collection, which includes The Runaway Bunny (1942) and My World (1949), and links closely with the first book. Brown has also found success with her books for the popular Little Golden Books children’s series, which have included The Color Kittens (1949), Mister Dog (1952) and The Sailor Dog (1953).