Close Reading: Goodnight Moon

While rereading and rereading one of my firstborn’s favorite books before bed, I noticed a pattern common to many children’s books: the recurring incidental character. The first Neil Gaiman Chu book has a snail on every page.¹ That’s Not My Lamb has a mouse. There’s a Pete the Cat sings Wheels on the Bus that has a recurring bird. Look for it. You’ll find a repeating character in lots of children’s books. ²

My point is, if you read the same book often enough, you might notice things you missed the first forty or so times, but once you finally do notice, it's a revelation, changes your understanding of the story, and makes you wonder what else you're missing! Take, for example, Margaret Wise Brown's classic, "Goodnight Moon."³

The first object mentioned in the great green room is a telephone, and then while every other object gets a polite goodnight, the telephone doesn't.

The stars and air and noises everywhere all get a good night, but not the telephone. It's not mentioned again, even though it's the closest object to the kid about to go to sleep. Is the kid waiting for it to ring? Wanting the phone to be alert and ready for a call? If so, then of course, he won't ever want to wish it goodnight.

And of the three pictures on the wall, two get good nights - the three bears in chairs and the cow jumping over the moon. But the picture hanging directly across from the kid? The one he sees last before closing his eyes? It does not get a good night either. And what does it depict? Have a look, I can't quite figure it out. My best guess is it's his dad playing with him when he was a baby bunny. But I'm not sure. But I think it's the key to the story. Is the kid waiting for his dad, who isn't there, who isn't calling, even though it's late, even though it's - if my guess about the balloon (the second object mentioned after the telephone) is correct - his birthday?

You see what I mean about how your understanding of the story changes? The kid isn't being polite and wishing every object a goodnight's sleep - the kid doesn't want to sleep; how could he? He's waiting on a call from his dad. He's delaying, and quite adept at it. AND - now, how am I to read the "Goodnight nobody?" Before I realized there were noteworthy objects not being wished goodnight in the room, I thought the kid was just being thorough. Now, I wonder is he addressing his absent father? Or himself? What a tragic, sad story this turns out to be!!!!!

Why “Goodnight nobody” instead of the more obvious “Goodnight everything” or “Goodnight everyone” or “Goodnight me?” If my reading is correct, and dad missed his birthday and didn’t even call, then is the little bunny in bed feeling that he must be so unimportant that he doesn’t even deserve recognition of existence?

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There are other readings, of course. My favorite is from Rebecca Mead’s Oct 9, 2015 New Yorker profile of children’s books promising to lull your child to sleep:

"The book draws on familiar nursery-rhyme imagery (“Goodnight cow jumping over the moon / Goodnight light and the red balloon”), before making its justly celebrated excursion into existentialism for tots, with an otherwise blank page that contains the words “Goodnight nobody." It then builds to an incantatory climax: “Goodnight stars / Goodnight air / Goodnight noises everywhere.” Brown’s masterpiece, first published in 1947, manages to be both warmly reassuring and transcendently awe-inspiring at the same time: it might have been subtitled “A New Way of Giving Children an Insight into the Human Condition While Introducing Poetry Into Their Souls.” Feel free to yawn while reading it."

And after sharing these thoughts with a fellow parent, I have been assured that the other unacknowledged object in the room, the painting on the wall across from the bunny in bed - is a callback to Brown’s⁴ earlier book, The Runaway Bunny. So, probably my reading is wrong. 

I should read it again.⁵

1. In subsequent Chu stories, Tiny the Snail becomes a featured player. 

2. Maybe it’s to engender the sense of comfort that comes with consistency? Maybe it’s that particular artist’ signature animal, like what they learned to draw first as a child? I have no idea. But once you see it, it’s hard not to notice. 

3. The first few times I read Goodnight Moon, I was unimpressed. Where is the plot, I thought? My daughter delighted in it, however. And over time, I grew to love it. There are a lot of poorly written children’s books. This isn’t one of them. The words are fun to read. It begins in a room and explodes to encompass the universe. And you learn to love reading the books your child enjoys more than the books you want her to enjoy. 

4. You should check out this profile of Margaret Wise Brown, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/02/07/the-radical-woman-behind-goodnight-moon and also get a hold of The Color Kittens, my next favorite of her children’s books.

5. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.