The New York City Library once refused to carry Goodnight Moon

If you're a parent, or if you have ever purchased a gift for new parents, there is a good chance you chose a book titled Goodnight Moon.

It's a simple book, containing just 131 words. It tells the story of a rabbit getting ready for bed – and saying goodnight to all the things in his bedroom.

"A little toy house and a young mouse, a comb and a brush and a bowl full of mush and a quiet old lady who was whispering hush." That old lady was a mature rabbit sitting in a rocking chair knitting, while the baby bunny does his rounds.

There is something about that book that makes it wonderful. It only takes two minutes to read and it has lulled children off to sleep for over 75 years. The pages of Goodnight Moon are cardboard thick so they can withstand sticky fingers and drooling bambinos. The images are vibrant, and the colours slowly dim as the book progresses.

"Goodnight kittens and goodnight mittens, goodnight clocks and goodnight socks."

Goodnight Moon was written by Margaret Wise Brown back in 1947. She was a writer that wasn't having much luck getting published. She wrote many short stories and sent them in to the New Yorker magazine, but they never got picked up. So Brown took a children's literature class and learned that a young child doesn't really care about plot. They are much more interested in rhythm and sounds and patterns.

Goodnight Moon was a small revolution in children's books, as it had no real plot and wasn't rooted in a fairy tale, as virtually all children's books were at the time. As a matter of fact, the New York City Library refused to carry the book for that very reason, calling it "an unbearably sentimental piece of work." The library didn't reverse its decision until 1973, 26 years after Goodnight Moon was first published.

Margaret Wise Brown had a gift for communicating to children – even though she never married and never had children of her own. Brown had a method for writing. She would pen an entire children's book in about 20 minutes – scribbling it on the back of envelopes or grocery lists. Then she would spend two years polishing the pacing and timing.

Margaret Wise Brown would go on to write over 100 books.

One day in 1950, in the south of France, she fell ill and had an emergency operation to remove a cyst. The day she was discharged – to prove to the doctors how well she felt – she kicked her leg up high like a Can-Can dancer, dislodged a blood clot, and died instantly. She was just 42 years old.

In Brown's will, she left the royalties from all her books to the nine-year old child of a friend. At the time of her death, Goodnight Moon had only sold a few thousand copies. 75 years later, it has sold over 48 million.

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