Margaret Wise Brown (1910-1952)
A book should try to accomplish something more than just to repeat a child's own experiences. One would hope rather to make a child laugh or feel clear and happy-headed as he follows a simple rhythm to its logical end, to jog him with the unexpected and comfort him with the familiar; and perhaps to lift him for a few moments from his own problems of shoe laces 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 story. Margaret Wise Brown
The day after I announced my pregnancy at work, a fellow teacher gave me a copy of Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, both by Margaret Wise Brown. I was touched. It was my first official baby gift. By the time of Mirette's birth, I had six more copies of Goodnight Moon and three of The Runaway Bunny—most given as gifts, one given to me for free by an early literacy project for new moms.
When Mirette was three months old, I memorized Goodnight Moon and recited it to her each night before bed for an entire year. I still know the book by heart (and probably always will).
Who is this popular and prolific Margaret Wise Brown, her books obviously some rite of passage into motherhood? I decided to do some research. I started by slogging through Awakened by the Moon by Leonard S. Marcus. This book is so slow and choppy that I will save you from having to read it yourself by summing up the interesting parts as best I can:
1. She loved cats! She liked to view the world from a cat's point of view.
2. She didn't feel that comfortable hanging out with Jewish people. Hmmm?
3. She loved rabbits, but also hunted them for sport.
4. She died at the age of 42 from a blood clot.
5. She was beautiful.
6. She had a house in Maine and a cottage in New York.
7. She did a lot to help illustrators and new writers succeed.
8. She almost worked with Maurice Sendak.
9. According to this book, she was always looking for older women to mentor her, even falling in love with an older poet named Michael Strange (who did not treat her very well).
But, by far, number 10 is the most interesting.
10. Her writing reflects the influences of both Lucy Mitchell and Anne Carroll Moore. Lucy Mitchell was her teacher and mentor at the Bank Street College of Education, a cutting edge establishment very revered in New York. Lucy was passionate about the "here and now" storytelling method, believing that playing with and exploring language, rhythms, and the child's world was the key to a good kids' book. From her point of view, fantasy, dreams, and psychology were not of interest to children.
Anne Carrol Moore was a children's librarian in New York and she was very against the "here and now" method. She believed great writing and the re-telling of fantasies and fairy tales was the strength of a good book. What's more, she had a tremendous amount of power in the literary world and could make or break a book with a single word.
This dichotomy is so clearly reflected in the book The Little Island. It's a sweet story about a beautiful island. Then suddenly a cat is having a philosophical and kind-of weird conversation with the island. Finally, it goes back to the "here and now" storytelling.
When reading Margaret Wise Brown's gigantic body of work (over 100 books), it is helpful to remember that she has a very historic place in the writing of children's lit. and a lot of her books, a tad bit boring now, were cutting edge at the time.
This is fascinating! Thanks for providing the highlights of your reading, and for drawing my attention to some new MWB books I don't already know (The Little Island being one of them). I forsee some library holds in our future!
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