GOODNIGHT MOON

Bibliography: Brown, Margaret Wise. Goodnight Moon. Illustrated by Clement Hurd. New York: Harper Collins& Row, Publishers, Inc, 1947. Print.  

ISBN 0064430170

Goodnight Moon is a delightful book, written in an unpretentious manner but with great rhythm and word choice, about a little rabbit getting ready for bed.  The little rabbit acts just like a little kid before bed time.  He wiggles around on his bed and with what can only be described as youthful curiosity he looks around the room for any excuse not to fall asleep.  He eventually settles himself down and falls asleep.

The illustrations in this book work just as hard to tell the story as the words.  Furthermore, the setting of this story is masterfully revealed by the illustrations.  The first illustration of the “great green room” is as bright and awake as the little rabbit.  But then as time passes and the rabbit starts to settle down, the room gets darker.  Interestingly enough the illustrations also depict a secondary plot about the little mouse trapped inside the “great green room.”  Additionally, the narration combines the use of rhythm and rhyme to move the story along. 

I think this book transcends cultural differences, because the little rabbit’s behavior is so innate that anyone can relate to it.  What I think is fun about reading this book is that I like reading the story slowly so that it helps my son to fall asleep, but he liked it better when I read it fast so that he can fight off sleeping a wee bit longer.  He quickly turned this story into a game of let’s name everything in my room!  But, just like the little rabbit he too eventually settles down and falls asleep. 

Activities:

English/Language Arts

•      Many of the pages have at least two rhyming words on it. You can have your students select a word, whether from the page or on their own, and create a rhyming word page around that particular word. Have volunteers share their rhymes with the class.

•      Students may create a poem or rhyming page based on their own bedroom or classroom. Students may also choose to write a composition about their bedroom or classroom of any length you choose.

Social Studies

•      Create a time line for the book. Read the book to your class. Then go back and have students observe what happened first in the book. Write that event on the board. Note the second event, the third, and so on. Talk with your students about the fact that a time line can cover any period of time. We often see time lines trace events across a period of years, but a time line can cover an hour or a day as well.

 Related Books:

Goodnight, Little Monster by Helen Ketteman

Goodnight iPad by Ann Droyd

 

Review:

In this landmark picture book, the illustrations by Clement Hurd alternate from brilliant color to calm black and white.  The use of traditional nursery rhymes and fairy tale characters in the rhythmic text is equally charming.  No wonder the appeal to both children and adults is as evident today as it was over 50 years ago.  It is a premier example of a book that automatically generates the request, “Oh, please read it again!”  (Excerpt from Reading Teacher, 2003)

Reference:

Livingston, Nancy, and Catherine Kurkjian. 2003. "Good Night, Moon (Book)." Reading Teacher 57, no. 1: 100. Literary Reference Center, EBSCOhost (accessed January 26, 2014).