Our copy of Goodnight Moon has seen better days.
We got it seven years ago when my firstborn was still a baby. She had a habit of chewing board books when she was teething, and Margaret Wise Brown’s classic tale was one of her first casualties.
It survived the attack mostly unscathed; only the top left corner is a little warped from baby drool. Since then, it’s been around the block a few times, and it’s getting a little worn out.
The book is still intact, but it’s certainly in the winter of its life. It’s starting to weaken; it’s become a bit frail. For instance, part of the title on the spine has been ripped off so now it just reads “Goodnight Mo.”
Speaking of the spine, my book-loving sister would be appalled at how many times it has been cracked and broken — a true travesty in her mind.
The page with the little mouse also has a little jam stain and will apparently remain forever sticky, as no amount of wiping down the page has ever solved the issue.
Our copy of Goodnight Moon is what you might call “well-loved.” It’s obviously a favourite with both of our children. But why? What makes Goodnight Moon so special?
Search me.
All I know is that it makes them calm and quiet at bedtime, and I’ll take all the help I can get.
Goodnight Moon is magic (or maybe it’s all just Science)
It’s hardly any wonder the poor board book has taken such a beating, considering how many nights have been spent with it propped up on one knee, a toddler or two on the other, reciting lines I no longer need to actually read (they’ve long since been burned into my memory.)
Goodnight Moon is nearing its 75th birthday and in its long life, it’s been a staple in many a child’s nursery, lulling our precious babies to sleep night after night as parents quietly shut the door at bedtime, astonished at the book’s magical properties.
And it is magic. Goodnight Moon has genuine magical, sleep-inducing powers that rarely fail to calm a toddler.
Okay, so it’s not really magic. But it is something. It’s science — it’s repetitive sound patterns and rhythm and semantics and all that jazz, but honestly: it’s really something.
It’s something that lulls kids into a quietude that I’ve never seen replicated with any other bedtime story, no matter how many caterpillars eat sausages or how many bears lose their hats.
(Although I really like those books, too.)
When it comes to early literacy, any book that makes my child pay attention to it is a winner. With over 70 years of doing just that, it’s no wonder Goodnight Moon has managed to remain a firm favourite with kids and parents alike.
Literacy comes alive when you read to your child
My son had no interest whatsoever in reading books as a baby. He’d grab the books with his pudgy little hands and hurl them behind him gleefully.
It was a hard pass.
I used to think he would never like being read to; if I’m honest, I worried that he would then never like reading at all. In my mind, this fear spiralled into him never learning to read and write and then he’d live in my basement forever, unhappy and alone.
A mother’s mind is very, uh — creative in its ability to fret.
Early literacy is so important, though. I have a teacher friend who told me about studies showing how early literacy affects a person’s adult experience, and the results were shocking. I later looked it up on my own, and she was so right — I hate when she’s right about scary statistics! According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy:
“2/3 of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of the fourth grade will end up in jail or on welfare.” — source
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like that statistic one little bit. Since 85% of juvenile offenders are functionally low literate, it’s pretty clear that there’s a connection between crime and literacy.
That’s why I was thrilled when my son started to take an interest in being read to; a development that only happened around 18 months of age. And the book that reeled him in?
Goodnight Moon. It’s a love affair that is still going strong today.
Rhythmic reading and repetition
Goodnight Moon lulls children off to sleepy land like no other, and while it’s not actually magic, it is a magical thing when our babies go to sleep without a fuss.
Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon was originally published and sold in 1947 as a children’s bedtime book, but it was so much more than that. Written in rhythmic rhyming poetry, the book takes us through a young bunny’s bedtime ritual of saying goodnight to various objects in his room.
Simple. Sweet.
Surprisingly effective.
Rhythmic sound is comforting to young children — from their earliest experiences of their mother’s heartbeat in the womb to reciting nursery rhymes as toddlers, it relaxes and calms them. But rhyming and rhythm also help young children learn, which is why nursery rhymes follow a very specific pattern, and why parents and educators alike rely on them so much.
This method is present in a number of books and kids’ stories. For example: hey, diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, and so on, is a rhyming pattern that is both simple and easy to follow for little learners. The timeless nursery rhymes we sing-song with our toddlers are full of patterns and are easy to remember, and our kids will first learn the rhythm and rhyme before they learn the words themselves.
That’s the first real step to literacy: patterns. Learning to make sounds in a particular pattern is how toddlers go from babbling to talking.
But why does Goodnight Moon in particular work so well when it comes to lulling children off to sleep?
It’s simpler than it seems: it’s the three “r’s.”
No — not “reduce, reuse and recycle.” It’s also not “reading, writing and arithmetic.” In terms of reading and children’s literature, the three “r’s” here are “rhythm, rhyme and repetition.”
Specifically, it’s the fact that the book is centred around the rhyming and repetition and not the story itself that makes it so effective.
It’s pure genius.
How important is a plot?
When it comes to children’s books, there is a wide range of storytelling methods.
For example, Eric Carle, the genius behind The Very Hungry Caterpillar, amongst other amazing books, wrote a simple, linear plot for the little caterpillar’s young life. The caterpillar breaks out of “the little egg [that] lay on a leaf” and begins to search for food.
That’s when the plot takes a bit of a leap towards the three “r’s” — on each day, he ate through a growing number of each fruit “but he was still hungry.” The repetition of that phrase helps to keep kids interested in anticipation of the soon-to-be-memorized ending of each part of his journey.
The story then reverts back to the plot and takes us through the rest of the caterpillar’s larvae stage before the “big reveal” at the end.
While kids love that book, it doesn’t have quite the same nonsensical nature that Goodnight Moon has, because Goodnight Moon is exactly that — nonsensical. There is no plot; there is no story.
It’s just a Bunny saying “goodnight” to his room as he gets into his cozy bed. A story is irrelevant when it comes to this level of reading anyway, especially considering the age group of its target audience.
The story, if you can even call it that, tops off its absurdity with “goodnight nobody,” which means literally nothing — only adults stumble over this part of the book. Why?
Because kids love absurdity. They love the nonsense.
Remember dear little Alice from Alice in Wonderland, wishing dolefully for a world full of nonsense? Kids don’t think like we do. They thrive on nonsense.
Adults reject it.
Goodnight Moon is entirely made up of nonsense, and that’s why it’s such a hit with kids. The rhythmic rhyming and random objects in the room and the bowl of mush are all just things — there’s no story. It’s just things in a room. It’s simple, but it works.
In fact, I think it’s the simplicity of the book is what makes it so special. The simplicity is part of the magic. Don’t ruin it by trying to figure it out — just sit with your child and enjoy the nonsense.
Better yet, enjoy the quiet. As Margaret Wise Brown said, “in quiet times and sleepy times, a child can dwell in thoughts of his own, and in songs and stories of his own.”
So do yourself and your children a favor and let them dwell in songs and stories all their own — and get yourself a copy of Goodnight Moon. You’ll need one.
And try to keep it away from your baby’s teeth.
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Previously Published on medium
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