I too had this book read to me as a child, innocently thinking it was about just about going to sleep. Here is a quote from the end of an article from the New Yorker: "The arrangement in “Goodnight Moon” is completely uneven. Time moves forward, and the little bunny doesn’t stand a chance. Parent and child are, in this way, brought together, on tragic terms. You don’t want to go to sleep. I don’t want to die. But we both have to."

From http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/12...

I must re-read the text to see, but night/sleep is usually referred to death. Perhpas it simply means sleep and the connotations of death are inevitable when speaking of night and sleep.

Even if it is, who cares? It's a children's book. They don't know. And if they do, they're going to have to learn about death sometime. It is an integral part of our lives. If we can teach them not to fear it so much, great.

I don't think it's "about" anything. My understanding is that Margaret Wise Brown was notoriously derisive of her own involvement in children's literature and wished that she was a more "serious" writer, which I think implies that she didn't think there was much depth in work for children. I think you can read as much as you want into anything, but the text of Goodnight Moon is very simple, mostly just two word phrases. The illustrations are really what move the book forward-- with each page the room gets a little bit darker and the stars outside get a little bit brighter. It's a slow lulling to sleep in pictures-- and I think that's what people have been using it for all of these years. In the last season of the Wire, there was a scene where a woman's son couldn't sleep and she used Goodnight Moon relaxation techniques-- having him say goodnight to all the things he could see outside his window. I use it to get my son to go to bed. And I remember using it when I was a little girl, saying goodnight to all the things in my room until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. So people can interpret it as some dark allegory about death but I don't think that's what it means to the people who have embraced it for generations.

Geez, it's a kids book on going to sleep. If you want to analyze something, go read Pynchon.

I just read that article from the New Yorker and it is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read.

Which article? Link?

the article listed in Shula's post above:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/12...