Goodnight Moon 123: A Counting Book

Children's Literature - Phyllis Kennemer

Thacher Hurd has used the marvels of technology to transfer his father's drawings into a counting book. The first three numbers coincide with the actual numbers in Brown's story, albeit not in order. One quiet old lady whispering hush, two little kittens, and three bears sitting on chairs. Then things get a bit silly. There are four cows jumping over the moon, five telephones, six bowls of mush, seven socks, eight mittens, nine red balloons, and ten toy houses. A double-page spread features one hundred stars. This is followed by a page of original text facing an original illustration. Some pages feature images on dark colors, while others have items standing out against white backgrounds. The best part of the book is the opening and closing endpapers, which show a reproduction of the entire room with the lamp lit and the same scene with the lamp turned off. (Both taken directly from the original book.) The audience for this book is not clear. Children who know and love Brown's book will be disappointed not to find the mouse throughout. Seeing multiple images of items that appear singly or in pairs in the original book can be a bit disconcerting. A question arises: Just because something is technically possible, does that make it desirable? Based on the book by Margaret Wise Brown. Reviewer: Phyllis Kennemer, Ph.D.