I want to be clear that I do not dislike Goodnight Moon. Three stars is not a bad score. Three stars means: I respect what this book is, I understand its cultural importance, and I also have some questions that haunt me at 11pm when I should be asleep.
Goodnight Moon was published in 1947. It has never been out of print. It has sold something like 48 million copies. It is, by any metric, one of the most successful children's books in history. And as someone who has now read it an estimated 1,200 times, I want to discuss some things.
First: the cow jumping over the moon
There is a picture of a cow jumping over the moon hanging in this bunny's bedroom. Why? Is this decorative? Is it aspirational? Is it meant to normalize cows clearing celestial bodies? I read this line every single night for 400 nights before I actually looked at the picture and thought about it, and now I can't stop thinking about it.
My 4-year-old, when I brought this up: "It's just a picture, Dad." She's right. I know she's right. I cannot stop thinking about the cow.
Second: the old lady whispering "hush"
Who is she? She's just there. Knitting. In this bunny child's bedroom. Whispering "hush." We do not get her name. We do not get her backstory. She just... whispers. And then in the final pages she's gone. Where did she go? Why was she there? I am not trying to be difficult. I have genuinely thought about this woman for three years.
When I asked my daughter who she thought the old lady was, she said, without hesitation: "That's the grandma." I said, how do you know? She said, "She just is." And then she went to sleep, fully satisfied, leaving me holding a 30-page board book with more questions than when I started.
What the book genuinely does well
Here's what I'll say without irony: the rhythm works. Read "In the great green room / there was a telephone / and a red balloon" aloud right now. There's something in the cadence that actually slows you down. After approximately 1,000 readings it started working on me too. By "goodnight air" I am genuinely less tense. By "goodnight noises everywhere" I am ready for a cup of tea and some quiet.
Also: the room gets darker as you go. Page by page. Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd built a dimmer switch into a 30-page board book in 1947. This is a legitimate design achievement and I respect it completely.
And my kids loved it. Both of them. Completely. My older one grew out of it around age 3 and moved on, but those years were real. The younger one is still in it. We are still doing it nightly. The routine is the point and the point works.
A legitimate classic that has earned its reputation. Three stars from me means "I have been broken by the repetition but I understand this is my problem, not the book's." Buy it. Use it. Make peace with the cow.