Goodnight Noises Everywhere

It is somewhat ironic that after 4 and a half years of what is commonly referred to as "mommy brain" (a condition in which even the simplest of words and thoughts slips through the sieve of my mind with startling regularity), I can still remember every word of this book. Without looking at it, I can recite the story, line by line.

Why can I do that, you ask? Repetition. Simple repetition. I estimate that I read this story to my 4 year old approximately 6,437 times before he grew too busy to sit still for a story (hopefully a temporary phenomenon). Every night, Anthony would beg for "just one more" story before bed. And this was one he never grew tired of hearing.

GOODNIGHT MOON is a simple story that outlines a young rabbit as he prepares for bed. In simple rhyming language, it brings us around his room and points out objects of interest, such as "a little toyhouse and a young mouse". It also mentions a "quiet old lady who was whispering 'hush'." The pictures in the board book alternate between bright colors that dim gradually as the book goes on and the young rabbit grows closer to sleep, and black and white drawings. These color/black and white pages alternate, so that there are 2 color pages then 2 without colors. In my opinion, the contrast is interesting, and helps keep the child's attention.

After going through the objects in the room one by one, the rabbit begins saying "goodnight" to each of them. As he says "goodnight", he is drawn to appear just a bit more sleepy on each page. At the end, we see the room dark and the rabbit nestled in bed, asleep.

There is just something classic and wonderful about this very simple story by Margaret Wise Brown (who also wrote the classic "A Runaway Bunny"). It keeps the kids coming back for more.

As I mentioned before, I read this story to my son (at his request)literally thousands of times. He would ponder each picture as I said the words. Then he would take a moment to say goodnight to the things in his room- a sweet, gentle way to fall asleep. My daughter is just starting to enjoy this story, since I had to buy a new copy of the book to replace the worn-out copy we had in my son's room. She laughs and points to each item as I mention it in story-telling.

Looks like Goodnight Moon is destined for another long, successful run here in sleepy-land. :-)