In the great green room
There was a telephone
And a red balloon
And a picture of --
(Margaret Wise Brown, in Goodnight Moon)
What parent among us cannot continue the verse from this classic children's book, the story of a little rabbit waiting for sleep, looking around at all the things "in the great green room," saying "goodnight comb, goodnight brush, goodnight nobody, goodnight mush?" The sound of the verse is as effective as a lullaby, very soothing, and the pictures simple but fascinating and reassuring in their ritual, not only for small children but also for their parents.
That's one thing about beginnings: the best ones sound good, are enchanting in their music as well as provocative in drawing us into the story. Here, Brown draws us in mainly through sound and a simple story, if you can even call it that, proving that the best stories, the most memorable ones, need not be complex or long but simple -- a child's story at heart.
Margaret Wise Brown was herself an interesting woman. She wrote with the then "new" idea back in the mid-1940s that children would rather read about their own lives instead of fairy tales and fables. Her biographers say that this "here and now" philosophy, which was created and tested at the Bank Street Experimental School in New York City led Brown to encourage children to swap stories with her. In this way, she learned what they thought about and what stories they thought to tell. In that special writing laboratory, she communicated with children about what they wanted to read and the problems they faced. She tried to write in the way children wanted a story told, and she encouraged illustrators to draw in that way as well.
She said she dreamed stories and had to write them down when she awoke so that she would not forget them. Over her short life (she died at 42), she wrote hundreds of stories, and many unpublished stories and songs were found at her death. Though she enjoyed writing for children, she did not marry, and had no children. Perhaps she feared she could not be a good parent, as her own parents divorced when she was young, and she had a difficult time of it.
About writing she said this: "One can but hope to make a child laugh or feel clear and happy-headed as he follows the simple rhythm to its logical end. It can jog him with the unexpected and comfort him with the familiar, lift him for a few minutes from his own problems of shoelaces that won't tie, and busy parents and mysterious clock time, into the world of a bug or a bear or a bee or a boy living in the timeless world of a story." No doubt she understood the concerns of children; no doubt, she unknowingly also spoke to all of us who have problems or concerns that tie us in knots and wonder how to find the time, that mysterious time we so need.
Read more about Margaret Wise Brown here.]
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