CREDIT: New Yorker cartoon by Harry Bliss, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Prints available at condenaststore.com.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Instead of Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, this werewolf father reads the lycanthrope version.
Archives for category: Children’s books
GOODNIGHT MOON
text of children’s picture book
by Margaret Wise Brown
In the great green room
there was a telephone
and a red balloon
and a picture of
the cow jumping over the moon.
There were three little bears
sitting on chairs
and two little kittens
and a pair of mittens
and a little toyhouse
and a young mouse
and a comb and a brush
and a bowl full of mush
and a quiet old lady
who was whispering “hush.”
Good night room
Goodnight moon
Goodnight cow
jumping over the moon
Goodnight light
and the red balloon
Goodnight bears
Goodnight chairs
Goodnight kittens
and goodnight mittens
Goodnight clocks
and goodnight socks
Goodnight little house
and goodnight mouse.
Goodnight comb
and goodnight brush
Goodnight nobody
Goodnight mush
and goodnight to the old lady
whispering “hush.”
Goodnight stars
Goodnight air
Goodnight noises everywhere.
©Harper Collins Publishing, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Find Goodnight Moon at Amazon.com.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Margaret Wise Brown (1910-1953) wrote hundreds of books and stories during her life, but she is best known for Goodnight Moon (1947) and Runaway Bunny (1942). Following her graduation with a B.A. in English in 1932, Brown worked as a teacher and also studied art. While working at the Bank Street Experimental School in New York City, she started writing books for children. Her first was When the Wind Blew, published in 1937 by Harper & Brothers.
ABOUT GOODNIGHT MOON: Originally published by Harper& Brothers in 1947, Goodnight Moon slowly became a bestseller. Annual sales grew from about 1,500 copies in 1953 to 20,000 in 1970 — and by 1990, the total number of copies sold was more than 4 million. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named the book one of its “Teachers’ Top 100 Books for Children.” It was one of the “Top 100 Picture Books” of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal. (Read more at Wikipedia.org.)
EDITOR’S NOTE: A Wall St. Journal article from Sept. 8, 2000 stated that Margaret Wise Brown‘s heir received $5 million in royalties from the time of the author’s death in 1953 to 2000. Let’s see…Goodnight Moon is composed of just 130 words — earning the heir almost $40,000 per word. (And that was 13 years ago….) The Wall St. Journal article (“Runaway Money” by Joshua Prager) details what became of all that money.
Today, there is at long last glorious rain — which I love any day of the year — in Los Angeles. And whether or not you like rain — and I don’t think most Angelenos like it, judging by their elaborate moisture-averting wardrobes — we need it to keep the dry brush from bursting into flames.
The above paragraph is a preamble to saying I woke up to the beautiful sight of a quarter-sized (including the legs) spider in my bathtub, looking for shelter from the storm. I would have left him/her there, except my cat Clancy likes to chase and eat spiders — and I didn’t think it wise for the cat or the spider. So i captured said spider in a jar that once held Bonne Maman Cherry Preserves (great with plain greek yogurt) and ushered him/her outside, where I hoped the arachnid found a place to wait out the rain.
The above two paragraphs are a preamble to marking the 114th birthday of E.B. White, author of one of my all-time favorite books, Charlotte’s Web. Charlotte, as most people know, was the spider that was a “a good writer” and “true friend” to Wilbur — a pig she saves from the slaughterhouse. (And for those who believe in animal totems — or who find them interesting — spiders are the totem of writers.)
So let’s enjoy a passage from the delightful, charming, profound Charlotte’s Web, a masterpiece for young and old by E.B. White.
“You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die. A spider’s life can’t help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Elwyn Brooks “E. B.” White (July 11, 1899 – October 1, 1985), was an American writer. He was a contributor to The New Yorker and a co-author of the English language style guide, The Elements of Style. He also wrote books for children, including Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan. In a 2012 survey, readers of School Library Journal voted Charlotte’s Web the top children’s novel of all time. (Read more at Wikipedia.org)
“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” VICTOR HUGO, Les Misérables
Photo: Mia Farrow reads to twins Matthew and Sascha Previn, baby Fletcher Previn, and daughter Lark Song Previn, Martha’s Vineyard, summer 1974, by Alfred Eisenstaedt, Time/Life, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
In this charming photo from 1969, novelist/screenwriter/essayist/writing icon Joan Didion reads HONEY BEAR by Dixie Willson to three-year-old daughter Quintana Roo Dunne. Since Didion is a writer par excellence, we are assuming that she picked only the best books to read to her daughter — and it follows that Honey Bear is a classic.
Wow! Yes! None other than Tom Wolfe — author of one of my favorite novels THE BONFIRES OF THE VANITIES and many other fiction and nonfiction works — claims that Honey Bear by Dixie Willson was the piece of literature that inspired him to become a writer (no kidding!). Because Wolfe’s take on Willson’s book is so fascinating and informative, I’m including an excerpt from his musings below.
From “The Books that Made the Writers” (YALE ALUMNI MAGAZINE) by Tom Wolfe:
“…I was… galvanized…by a writer who never rated so much as a footnote to American literary history: Dixie Willson. Dixie Willson wrote, and Maginel Wright Barney illustrated, a book called Honey Bear in 1923. My mother used to read it to me at bedtime long before I knew one letter of the alphabet from another. Over and over she read it to me. I was small, but like many people my age I had already mastered the art of having things my way. I had memorized the entire poem in the passive sense that I could tell whenever Mother skipped a passage in the vain hope of getting the 110th or 232nd reading over with a little sooner. Oh, no-ho-ho…there was no fooling His Majesty the Baby. He wanted it all. He couldn’t get enough of it.
Honey Bear is a narrative poem about a baby kidnapped from a bassinet by a black bear. Maginel Wright Barney drew and painted in the japanais Vienna Secession style. To me, her pictures were pure magic. But Honey Bear’s main attraction was Dixie Willson’s rollicking and rolling rhythm: anapestic quadrameter with spondees at regular intervals. One has to read it out loud in order to be there:
Once upon a summer in the hills by the river
Was a deep green forest where the wild things grew.
There were caves as dark as midnight—there were tangled trees and thickets
And a thousand little places where the sky looked through.
The Willson beat made me think writing must be not only magical but fun…I resolved then and there, lying illiterate on a little pillow in a tiny bed, to be a writer. In homage to Dixie Willson, I’ve slipped a phrase or two from Honey Bear into every book I’ve written. I tucked the fourth line, above, into the opening chapter of The Right Stuff (page 4) from memory as I described how not-yet-an-Astronaut Pete Conrad’s and his Jean Simmons-lookalike wife Jane’s little white brick cottage near Jacksonville Naval Air Base was set in a thick green grove of pine trees with ‘a thousand little places where the sun peeks through.’ Peeks… looked… Ah, well, hey ho…”
Read more of of “The Books that Made the Writers” at YALE ALUMNI REVIEW.
Photo: Joan Didion Reads Honey Bear by Dixie Willson to daughter Quintana Roo Dunne, Los Angeles Times, 1969, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Note: Honey Bear by Dixie Willson is currently out of print, but copies are usually available on ebay (starting at around $100)…
May is “Get Caught Reading” month sponsored by Get Caught Reading — a nationwide campaign launched in 1999 in the U.S. to remind people of all ages how much fun it is to read.
Research indicates that early language experience stimulates a child’s brain to grow and that reading to children gives them a huge advantage when they start school — so the folks at Get Caught Reading hope to encourage people of all ages to enjoy books and magazines and to share that enjoyment with the young children in their lives. Teachers and librarians across the U.S. have set up “Get Caught Reading” corners, allocating a special time each day for leisure reading, and taking photos of students “caught reading” for classroom posters.
Get Caught Reading offers free posters and free video downloads to help spread the word about this outstanding literacy campaign. For more information, visit getcaughtreading.org.
Get Caught Reading Poster: Keira Knightley reads ANNA KARENINA by Leo Tolstoy. (For the record, Knightley starred as the titular figure in the 2012 film version, directed by Joe Wright. I’ve read the book and have seen the movie — and for those who haven’t done both, trust me, the book is much better.) Download ANNA KARENINA (in a masterful translation by Constance Garnett) for free in a variety of formats at gutenberg.org.
MAY I SUGGEST (FOR THE MONTH OF MAY): If you’d like to send a photo of yourself reading a book, leave us a comment. We will contact you about where to email the photo. We’ll feature these photos — if we receive any — on the Silver Birch Press blog during May (Get Caught Reading Month).
Most of us have fond memories of Little Golden Books — either having someone read them to us or reading them to our children or other relatives. Publisher Simon and Schuster began the series on October 1, 1942 with 12 titles — including the now-iconic The Poky Little Puppy. Ownership of the series changed several times over the decades — and in 2001 Random House acquired Little Golden Books for $85 million.
When Little Golden Books celebrated its golden anniversary in 1992, 500 million of its volumes were in circulation. Over the years, Little Golden Books have remained virtually identical in appearance — The Pokey Little Puppy still looks the same as when it arrived over 70 years ago.
In the above photo from the late 1940s, Marilyn Monroe reads the Little Golden Book TOYS by Edith Osswald to a friend’s child. If you are familiar with Monroe’s upbringing and orphanhood, this photo is quite touching. A copy of the original 1945 edition of TOYS is for sale on ebay for $50.
THE LITTLE PRINCE (Excerpt)
By Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“GOOD MORNING,” said the little prince.
“Good Morning,” said the salesclerk. This was a salesclerk who sold pills invented to quench thirst. Swallow one a week and you no longer feel any need to drink.
“Why do you sell these pills?”
“They save so much time,” the salesclerk said. “Experts have calculated that you can save fifty-three minutes a week.”
“And what do you do with those fifty-three minutes?”
“Whatever you like.”
“If I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked,” the little prince said to himself, “I’d walk very slowly toward a water fountain…”
Photo: Actress Jean Seberg (1938-1979) reads THE LITTLE PRINCE by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944). (Photo, circa 1960.)
MAY
by Maurice Sendak
In May I think it truly best
to be a robin lightly dressed
concocting soup inside my nest
Mix it once, mix it twice,
mix that chicken soup with rice.
…From CHICKEN SOUP WITH RICE: A Book of Months by Maurice Sendak, available at Amazon.com.
MARCH MADNESS, THE MARCH HARE, AND LEWIS CARROLL
In the U.S., the month of March is filled with talk of madness – March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournaments. Background on how “March Madness” got its name is in an article at Slate.com. After reading this explanation, I must say, “Hmmm,” and ask, “Did the journalist leave out something — or someone?”
I, for one, believe the inspiration for “March Madness” came from the mad March Hare in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – and author Lewis Carroll has never received proper credit. Yes, his work is in the public domain (find Alice in many forms at Project Gutenberg) – but he should still receive attribution. (As a cautionary tale, look at what happened to Jane Goodall for not attributing passages in her new book, Seeds of Hope, that she lifted from Wikipedia.)
So, at last, Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) – an author among our top-10 favorites – we will honor you on this day in March 2013, by saying that you and your creation the March Hare are the inspiration for the term “March Madness.”
According to Wikipedia (we promise to try to remember to attribute!), “Mad as a March hare” is a common British expression based on popular belief about the behavior of male hares during breeding season when they run around acting crazy – boxing with other hares, jumping straight up in the air, racing around in circles, and other wild, excitable behavior. (In Great Britain, breeding season for hares lasts from February to September).
In Carroll’s book — originally published in 1865 — the March Hare behaves as though it’s always teatime because his friend, the equally Mad Hatter, “murdered the time” while singing for the Queen of Hearts. (During the 1800s, “mad as a hatter” was a common British expression – referring to the disorientation hat makers experienced from the mercury used in their trade.)
So, today, we honor author Lewis Carroll and especially his charming creation the March Hare. Lets revel here in a few passages from one of the greatest works in all of literature – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
“Have some wine,” the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.
Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. “I don’t see any wine,” she remarked.
“There isn’t any,” said the March Hare.
“The it wasn’t very civil of you to offer it,” said Alice angrily.
“It wasn’t very civil of you to sit down without being invited,” said the March Hare…
The Hatter opened his eyes very wide…”Why is a raven like a writing desk?”
“…I believe I can guess that,” Alice added.
“Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?” said the March Hare.
“Exactly so,” said Alice.
“Then you should say what you mean,” the March Hare went on.
“I do,” Alice hastily replied, “at least – at least I mean what I say – that’s the same thing, you know.”
“Not the same thing a bit!” said the Hatter.
“Why, you might just as well say that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as ‘I eat what I see’!”
“You might just as well say,” added the March Hare, “that ‘I like what I get’ is the same thing as ‘I get what I like’!”
##
And whenever we pick up Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and open it to any page, any passage, we get what we like.
Illustration: John Tenniel (1820-1914)
Silver Birch Press 