海角大神

When Kenny Varner attended the 60th birthday party of a family member recently, he was somewhat startled after the conversation turned to the enduring appeal of 鈥淕oodnight Moon.鈥� 聽

He had mentioned how the much-beloved children鈥檚 bedtime story by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd would turn 75 in September. Dr. Varner, who directs the Gayle A. Zeiter Literacy Development Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, had been thinking about the reasons 鈥淕oodnight Moon鈥� is as popular today as it was decades ago.聽 聽

鈥淲e pulled it up on our phones, and we鈥檙e looking at a digital version of it together, and it鈥檚 just a text that is really robust,鈥� says Dr. Varner, who focuses on literacy, language, and cultural identity. 鈥淎nd then family members and other folks, from the ages of 5 to over 90, all began to share memories of the importance of this book, both in their own childhoods and now and with who they are as parents. So there鈥檚 this interesting intergenerational thing happening with 鈥楪oodnight Moon,鈥欌�� he says.聽

Indeed, for generations this book about a great green room with a telephone and red balloon has been a part of millions of bedtime rituals, making Dr. Varner and others marvel at the aesthetic and developmental power that continues to make it a family favorite.聽

The playful language excited the 5-year-old at Dr. Varner鈥檚 family gathering 鈥� the kittens, the mittens, the bowl full of mush! The person over 90 recalled, too, how the black-and-white prints interspersed in a book about a 鈥済reat green room鈥� were actually meant to keep costs down. Color prints could make a picture book prohibitively expensive back then.

鈥淏ut that, actually, that鈥檚 one of the most memorable features of the book,鈥� says Dr. Varner. It creates an aesthetic rhythm, melding perspectives of time, blinking back and forth between modern color and familiar black and white 鈥� even as time is grounded in subtle visual details, like the clocks, which move forward 10 minutes through the frames, and the moon, which rises bit by bit behind the window.聽聽

鈥淎 small child is able to experience a comforting, structured routine without a deep, complex storyline,鈥� Dr. Varner says.

But when 鈥淕oodnight Moon鈥� was first published in 1947, such techniques were both innovative and radical, says Cara Byrne, professor of English at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. A scholar who focuses on the history of children鈥檚 storybooks, she begins all of her classes each semester with a discussion of the popular bedtime classic.

鈥溾�楪oodnight Moon鈥� is actually a really great book to bring in first, because at its time it was doing something really radical,鈥� says Dr. Byrne. 鈥淗er books were part of a movement of educators who were trying to push away from some other, older models of educating children 鈥� other norms or ideas about children as needing a particular type of instruction, needing to be moralized in a particular way.鈥�

Indeed, in 1935, Ms. Brown studied to be a teacher at Bank Street College of Education, the alternative teacher training school in New York鈥檚 Greenwich Village. Its founder, Lucy Sprague Mitchell, believed children needed stories anchored in the familiar rather than the fantastic 鈥� and grounded in empirical research about the psychologies of children as they interacted with their worlds.

Ms. Brown never finished her studies or became a teacher, but as she began to write storybooks she moved away from the kinds of traditional folk tales and fables that conveyed simple moral messages. Instead, she wrote stories about the preoccupations of children, their curiosities and emotions and fears. 聽

She also sought out illustrators more in tune with modernist and avant-garde visual sensibilities. Mr. Hurd鈥檚 illustrations in 鈥淕oodnight Moon,鈥� many have observed, are similar to Henri Matisse鈥檚 鈥淟鈥橝telier Rouge.鈥� The illustrations in 鈥淭he Runaway Bunny鈥� could have been inspired by Georges Seurat鈥檚 鈥淭he Circus.鈥澛�

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 one of those beautiful books that not only was revolutionary in its time; it was also kept out of some library collections because it was so different and odd,鈥� says Dr. Byrne.

One of the book鈥檚 detractors was Anne Carroll Moore, the influential head of the children鈥檚 wing at the New York Public Library. A major historical figure and innovator in her own right, Miss Moore practically invented the idea of having a children鈥檚 wing in libraries. She introduced storytelling hours to NYPL鈥檚 vaunted main branch and instituted policies to allow even the poorest of immigrant children to check out books.

Persnickety and traditional, Miss Moore was also in many ways a powerful foil to Bank Street鈥檚 radical new ideas about childhood development and storytelling. A staunch proponent of magical, fantastic tales with plots upholding a moral order, she was enthusiastic about the stories of Hans 海角大神 Andersen and Beatrix Potter while famously disliking E.B. White鈥檚 classic children鈥檚 stories 鈥淪tuart Little鈥� and 鈥淐harlotte鈥檚 Web.鈥澛�

Similarly, the powerful New York librarian thought little of Ms. Brown鈥檚 storytelling, and because of her influence, 鈥淕oodnight Moon鈥� was kept off shelves until 1972, the year of its 25th anniversary, when it was selling almost 100,000 copies a year.聽

Mike Scott, a writer and communications specialist in Cleveland, has been reading 鈥淕oodnight Moon鈥� and other books by Ms. Brown to his kids and grandkids for over 35 years.聽

鈥淔or me, 鈥楪oodnight Moon鈥� is a weirdly sweet book, and I always enjoyed the poetic rhythm,鈥� says Mr. Scott, who read the book to his adult children decades ago and is now again to his 3-year-old son, Ulysses, whose nickname is Ulee.聽

鈥淏ut it鈥檚 also a book with some very unexpected things in it. 鈥榃hat鈥檚 that mouse doing in the middle of the room? Who keeps a bowl of mush next to their bed? And what is mush, anyway?鈥欌�澛�

These are the questions he asks each generation of his family, and they respond to the book鈥檚 quirky hilarity as well as to the overall warmth of the book, he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a fun book. Reading it is like going back into time, but sort of sideways and landing into an odd room, indeed.鈥�

Ulee now loves the story 鈥� it鈥檚 one of his favorites, Mr. Scott says. They shared a special moment recently, too, when Ulee was excited to notice that the painting hanging on the left wall of the great green room 鈥� a black-and-white sketch 鈥� was actually a scene from 鈥淭he Runaway Bunny,鈥� another Margaret Wise Brown story they read together.聽

鈥淚t was a pretty cool moment when we made that connection,鈥� says Mr. Scott.