Goodnight Moon- A beloved favorite

Goodnight Moon; A well-loved book in the Horne Household. Many a night this was the book of choice to be read at bedtime. The familiar words and melodic, poetic nature made it easy to set cadence to

and slowly drift away

at a lower volume,

until the little terror lying next to you

finally…

fell…

asleep…

Just kidding.

Goodnight Moon is such a simple book, but the way the words flow is wonderful. I still reached the point quickly where I hated reading it aloud. The familiarity children seem to hang onto can be so mundane to the adult mind.

I think how my 8 year old son refuses to watch a new Disney movie with me because after a few minutes in, he will take the remote and put on one of his faithful few movies he loves. I have chosen movies that are similar in story line, and promised him he will enjoy, but he goes back to what is familiar to him. That is his comfort zone.

Reading the same book at bedtime night after night brings about that same comfort. I guess I do not have room to talk, as even myself as an adult, I have certain bedtime routines to help my body know it is time for bed. Perhaps these are creature comforts as well.

I looked up the history of Good Night Moon, because even the simplest of children’s books often have the greatest back stories. Margaret Wise Brown wrote the story based on her own childhood habit of saying goodnight to the items in her room before bedtime. Her book was one of a new genre of children’s books of its time where instead of only fictional and fantasy, her book was “about the familiar—animals, vehicles, bedtime rituals, the sounds of city and country”.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/surprising-ingenuity-behind-goodnight-moon-180961923/

She completed her story after entering the Bureau of Educational Experiments’ Cooperative School for Student Teachers. She actually wrote her stories and then would read them to the students at the school. Instead of writing to impress an editor or publisher, she actually took her writings directly to the audience for whom she was writing. The success of her findings at the school, lead her to write one of the most beloved children's books for bedtime.

I think about this book and remember the well worn copy my daughter owned that was read over and over again. Later, my son received his own copy and the tradition lived on and continued. Both of my children were able to recall certain words from the pages we were on because of memorizing the book. In their own way they were reading using picture clues before they were old enough to recognize the words. The teacher in me recognizes this as an important stage in a child’s development. The mother in me just knew both of my children were, and still are, geniuses. ;)

Goodnight Moon is a story that any child can build onto and both my children did. Of course they had to continue the story in their own way by saying goodnight to a key toy or to myself, my husband or whoever was reading the bedtime story that night. They made the story their own, even though I assure you they neither one knew what is mush.

In this way they were first learning to use their words and experiences to connect to a book. Reading the story aloud let them both have their chance to realize the story does not have to end with goodnight noises everywhere. We can now add our own items and people to tell goodnight. Of course, my children saw it more as a way to defy bedtime, along with adding a request for a cup of water because they were suddenly dehydrated, but they continued the story nevertheless. Later, asking for how a story might continue, would end up being story prompts at school, and enjoyable family discussions after we finish watching a movie together. Sometimes we just tell how we would have chose a different ending instead, but all these ideas come from that first inclination of not letting a simple story just end.

I hope in the long run to one day share this same story with my grandkids. Not anytime soon mind you, but in the future. I hope to share with them the memories of reading to their own parent when they were little. I hope to have some of those same bedtime drag out moments where we end up having to say goodnight to several items in the room. I hope I truly remember to take the time to enjoy those moments, since the first time around, they seemed to have passed so quickly.