Margaret Wise Brown

In the great green room....virtually every child knows this first line of a very famous and well-loved book Goodnight Moon. Today is Margaret Wise Brown's birthday. She was born May 23, 1910 in Brooklyn. She died very young at the age of 42 from an embolism.

This book relates so well to the experience of children and parents and the goodnight ritual, it has become an icon in children's literature. I heard Patricia MacLachlan say recently that she hesitated to submit her new goodnight book to her editor because the perfect one had already been written by Brown. MWB never had children, never married (although she was engaged to a Rockefeller when she died.) The book did not win a Caldecott for Clement Hurd, the illustrator; yet its rhyme and pictures live forever in the hearts of children.

It was the favorite book of Brandon Scott Thomas and his mother enjoyed reading it to him, as she does reading it to Maddie and Ella.