Happy Birthday Margaret Wise Brown!

Today we celebrate the birthday of beloved and prolific children's author, Margaret Wise Brown. Whilst Brown is best known for the classic bedtime story, Goodnight Moon, she also produced over fifty books for young children, including Big Red Barn and Runaway Bunny.

"Goodnight stars. Goodnight air. Goodnight noises everywhere."

It was whilst working as a teacher in New York city that Brown began to write for children. Her first story, When the Wind Blew, was published in 1937. Brown loved animals and most of her books have animals as characters in the story. She also loved rhythm and rhyme and you can often find repeated word patterns in her stories.

"If you become a little boy and run into a house", said the mother bunny, "I will become your mother  and catch you in my arms and hug you."

Brown tried to write the way children wanted to hear a story. Her books addressed the everyday world and the concerns of children. This went against the traditionally held belief that fairytales, myths, legends and folktales were the best way to introduce young children to literature. She listened to children - to how they talked, to the songs and poems that they made up - and created stories about children like themselves, in the style of language that they actually used. 

I like bugs. Black bugs. Green bugs. Bad bugs. Mean  bugs.

So celebrate the young readers in your life and celebrate Margaret Wise Brown too - come in and see us and check out some of the wonderful stories created by an equally wonderful author.

Happy Birthday Margaret Wise Brown!