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Goodnight Songs by Margaret Wise Brown

Source: Sterling Children’s Books
Hardcover, 28 pages
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Goodnight Songs by Margaret Wise Brown is beautifully illustrated by 12 award-winning artists and has a great CD of songs to accompany it.  My daughter loves listening to the songs nightly these days — replacing the other goodnight songs, which were mostly nature sounds or easy-listening Eagles and Eric Clapton.  We’ve only ever read 2 other books by Brown, Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny.  She’s loved that one, and the calm way I read it, but the verse in this collection does not seem as polished, which could be attributed to the fact that these lullabies were found in a chest of unpublished manuscripts.  However, what rings true is that these songs resemble those that children often sing to themselves when they are playing or picking up their things — spur-of-the-moment made-up lyrics — as said in the book’s introduction.

From The Mouse's Prayer (page 25)

Close my eyes and go to sleep.
Bugs no more on grass blades creep.
Bugs no more and birds no more,
In the woods will come no more

Dream of a weed growing from a seed,
Quietly, quietly from a seed.
In a garden
A slim green weed,
Quietly, quietly from a seed.

Each of these songs is repetitive in nature, like the songs children sing, and they are catchy when set to music.  My daughter is already singing them as she goes to sleep and takes her naps.  She’s engaged with the vivid drawings, which are fanciful and other worldly.  Goodnight Songsby Margaret Wise Brown is gorgeous, playful, and calming in words, illustration, and song — a delightful addition to anyone’s collection.

About the Author:

Margaret Wise Brown wrote hundreds of books and stories during her life, but she is best known for Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny. Even though she died over 45 years ago, her books still sell very well. Margaret loved animals. Most of her books have animals as characters in the story. She liked to write books that had a rhythm to them. Sometimes she would put a hard word into the story or poem. She thought this made children think harder when they are reading. She wrote all the time. There are many scraps of paper where she quickly wrote down a story idea or a poem. She said she dreamed stories and then had to write them down in the morning before she forgot them. She tried to write the way children wanted to hear a story, which often isn’t the same way an adult would tell a story. She also taught illustrators to draw the way a child saw things.

Mailbox Monday #268

Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia at To Be Continued, formerly The Printed Page, has gone through a few incarnations from a permanent home with Marcia to a tour of other blogs.

Now, it has its own permanent home at its own blog.

To check out what everyone has received over the last week, visit the blog and check out the links.  Leave yours too.

Also, each week, Leslie, Vicki, and I will share the Books that Caught Our Eye from everyone’s weekly links.

Here’s what I received:

1. The Vintner’s Daughter by Kristen Harnisch from Caitlin Hamilton Summie Marketing for review in August!

Loire Valley, 1895. When seventeen-year-old Sara Thibault’s father is killed in a mudslide, her mother sells their vineyard to a rival family, whose eldest son marries Sara’s sister, Lydia. But a violent tragedy compels Sara and her sister to flee to New York, forcing Sara to put aside her dream to follow in her father’s footsteps as a master winemaker.

Meanwhile, Philippe Lemieux has arrived in California with the ambition of owning the largest vineyard in Napa by 1900. When he receives word of his brother’s death in France, he resolves to bring the killer to justice. Sara has travelled to California in hopes of making her own way in the winemaking world. When she encounters Philippe in a Napa vineyard, they are instantly drawn to one another, but Sara knows he is the one man who could return her family’s vineyard to her, or send her straight to the guillotine.

2.  Goodnight Songs by Margaret Wise Brown for review from Sterling Books.

From Margaret Wise Brown, author of the beloved Goodnight Moon, comes a previously unpublished collection of charming lullabies, gorgeously illustrated by 12 award-winning artists. The roster of celebrated names includes Carin Berger, whose The Little Yellow Leaf was a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book; Eric Puybaret, who brought the bestselling Puff, the Magic Dragon to life on the page; Coretta Scott King Honor Award winner Sean Qualls; and Caldecott Honor medalist Melissa Sweet. An accompanying CD, with lilting songs beautifully composed and sung by Emily Gary and Tom Proutt, makes this the perfect gift to wish children a sweet goodnight.

3.  Grand Central: Original Stories of Postwar Love and Reunion with an introduction by Kristin Hannah for review in July.

On any particular day, thousands upon thousands of people pass through New York City’s Grand Central Terminal, through the whispering gallery, beneath the ceiling of stars, and past the information booth and its beckoning four-faced clock, to whatever destination is calling them. It is a place where people come to say hello and good-bye. And each person has a story to tell.

Now, ten bestselling authors inspired by this iconic landmark have created their own stories, set just after the end of World War II, in a time of hope, uncertainty, change, and renewal.

What did you receive?

For today’s 2014 National Poetry Month: Reach for the Horizon tour stop, click the image below: