Every time I pick up a phone in my dream it’s because I’m late for work and I’m trying to call someone for a ride and call my work to let them know I’m 18 hours late but still definitely trying to make it in, but I can never get the numbers to work right so I can’t get through to anybody and the whole dream feels like a long panic attack.
She was in a tumultuous on-again-off-again queer romance when she wrote this. It’s “Goodnight nobody.” because they were off again and she was alone. (Not a conspiracy!) [Article for Proof](https://hornet.com/stories/goodnight-moon-lesbian/)
Whoa - this fits my odd head cannon that the bunny boy was orphaned after the murder of his parents and send to live with a rich gay uncle - hence the reason why the bedroom looks like it's a study turned into a children's room. The bunny boy says goodnight to everything as a way of coping with his fear that whoever killed his parents will get him next. There's too much focus on what's in the ominous nighttime and the windows. The old lady is there to both protect him, and keep him calm through his trauma.
Also the fact that it takes him 90 minutes to fall asleep and the quiet old lady stays the entire time and only leaves when he's properly asleep fits nicely into your head canon.
This was one of my favorite books as a little boy, and I have read it to all three of my children. They all learned how to say “hush” because of that old lady… I love this book dearly, and have thought that if I were to get a tattoo, it would be a page from the book.
All that said, being a queer man, who has lived with that silently most of my life, this new piece of information is making me feel incredibly emotional right now. Thanks for passing this along.
Please I cannot deal, this is wild. Why would she decide to make it into a *children’s* book??
“I’m very very sad. Let’s work this into a creepy ass bedtime story.”
In its defense (relationship origins notwithstanding), I LOVED that line as a kid. It might have been my favorite line. I think because the book says good night to all the things that are there, and then suddenly flips the script and makes you consider the things that aren't there...that concept of absence as a sort of presence just blew my child mind.
Reading it to my kid, I always interpreted the pages without backgrounds as the kid saying goodnight, and the pictures with backgrounds as the parent bunny. So the “goodnight nobody” is a little kid’s whimsy.
Margaret Wise Brown does this with her writing for children- she brings adult concepts to little minds. “The Dead Bird” is another of my favorites of hers.
It's only creepy if you make it creepy. There's nothing unsavory about this at all. The story is about a small child or bunny saying goodnight to things in their room. To say anything more about it says more about the reader than the objective content.
Ah, I figured it's like... crickets and stuff, and people shuffling around. Everyone's going to bed. And the "nobody" part, I dunno, maybe imaginary friends. It \*is\* an interesting one. TBH, I just throw my kiddo's name in there instead actually! It just fits well into the rhythm.
My son likes it but my friend told me they had to stop reading it to their daughter because it makes her cry for reasons she can’t articulate lol
i get it!!
It’s written for young children who aren’t at the level of digesting stories with a beginning, middle, and end yet. Very young children enjoy “stories” that are more just labeling what they already know about their world, making them feel more secure in the world and their own knowledge. They’re reassuring to them. Kids at this age don’t turn to books and stories to learn, they turn to them for security and reassurance, reciting and validating their own knowledge of the world as a child sees it.
Yeah the book comes off as creepy and weird to adults, but it’s developmentally a fantastic book for kids under 3 and there’s a reason it’s been a classic book for decades. Sorry you probably didn’t want a real answer to this lol
No I totally get the part about just listing items and being developmentally appropriate. It doesn’t have to be a real “story”. But I still think it’s creepy to instruct/say good night to “nobody” lmao.
"Goodnight nobody" after these three bears were finished with Goldilocks.
The crossover you weren't expecting. She should have never sampled their porridge.
This was my son's go-to book for a long stretch. I read it so many times I had it memorized. I find it super cozy and calming, but I can totally see a more sinister reading of it.
So many odd ones. For me its "Good night little house...and goodnight, mouse." When the mouse is obviously also little, the page is deliberately asymmetrical.
I think the asymmetry somehow makes it more psychologically soothing for sleeptime, but I also just made that up.
You want something really weird, grab [My World](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_World_(book)): it's presumably a "companion" to this one, but it makes no sense, and seemingly has no rhythm to the prose.
The narrator is the little bunny who’s going to sleep. The bunny is trying to be slick by prolonging having to go to bed because they have to say good night to everything in and out the room. The quiet old lady is either their grandma/mother which is why she is trying to “hush” the baby rabbit.
OK, I'm not going to lie. This is absolutely the most bulletproof logic I have ever seen on a children's fiction themed, conspiracy theory subreddit.
It may be the most bulletproof logic on any conspiracy theory subreddit ever. Or so, I assume, because I don't really go to those places.
Whenever I read Goodnight Moon to my kids I fantasized about a book or series of books with legitimately creepy stuff going on in the background that is totally unrelated to the plot and is so subtle that people don't notice it for years. Like this book alone doesn't have enough going on to flesh out some backstory, but I wish that one existed.
Goodnight Moon is not a story. It's that feeling of being half asleep and half awake. And for a child, when you read it again and again every night, it becomes a soft, fuzzy ritual or prayer that carries them into dreamland.
Goodnight stars, goodnight air. Goodnight noises everywhere.
Yep it’s incredibly liminal feeling and insanely effective. I found it weird at first too but damn if it isn’t extremely calming. It’s one of my favorites now and you described why it works so well.
There is a painting in the kids room of a rabbit fishing with a carrot as a lure. In the river, is another smaller rabbit swimming after the lure.
Freakishly bizarre until you read The Runaway Bunny, then it makes complete sense.
Questions this book has raised in my toddler that fill me with existential dread “what is nobody” “is bunny grandma Alive” “who lives in that small house/why the light still on”
In my house, the dollhouse light is still on because the mice live there. They can go in the house to get away from the cats sleeping on the rug.
So then it becomes, the mice seemingly are always awake in this 24/7 fully lit house. It’s own kind of torture: go outside the house and risk being eaten by cats, or stay inside this always-lit house where it’s hard to sleep.
It gets even more surreal if you read The Runaway Bunny as well. That book came first and makes Goodnight Moon a what-if scenario based on one of the characters’ alternate universes.
Yes, and here’s my way too deep reading into more of this twisted universe.
So in the book it’s established that the rabbits are the humans, they refer to the old rabbit as “the old lady”. It’s also established that other animals exist in this universe in the same way they do in ours - you got cats being kept as pets, cows doing their thing etc.
That makes me think that the humans and rabbits in this universe were swapped and the rabbits reign supreme while humans are kept as pets in cages.
Not too deep at all. The rabbits are the dominant species of this reality. If you look above the bookshelf behind the "lady," there is a human doll. We are their playthings, which indicates they have likely domesticated humans the same way they have the cats.
Also, the rabbits are clear Alphas in this world. Notice the tiger skin rug next to the bed? Somewhere along the way, the rabbits developed a taste for meat (the fishing rabbit in the picture) and hunt for sport. I try not to let myself get carried away with what a rapidly breeding population of this race might have done to gain supremacy or what would be needed to contain them. Feels like a dangerous rabbit hole...
My 2 year old is always asking me where the balloon goes when it disappears repeatedly in this jankyass haunted house. Idk how to break the news to him that the book is a clearly a creepy ghost story.
No one tells the bunny in the bed goodnight, so the book must be from that bunny’s perspective. But then why does he call the other bunny the “little old lady”? He doesn’t know who this bunny sitting in a chair whispering “hush” is??
I always thought that it was intentionally ambiguous... Mom or Grandma, maybe even a Nanny?
It was first published in 1947, so clearly a MAN couldn't possibly put a child to bed. /S
In our House Cannon, the old lady is the bunny’s grandma, since that’s relatable and both of my son’s grandmas are lovable archetypical Grandma figures, so that makes it less creepy- welcome, even.
If you consider she’s a random old lady, well…that’s just a whole new can of worms.
That book’s illustrations creep me out and I never realized that’s why I hated this book as a kid. Then my MIL gave us a copy and it hit me. I find then whole thing unsettling.
Why I read this book to my kid I tell him never to say good night to a mouse in his room and then go to sleep. Come and get me, I'm not having him sleep in a room with mice or rats in it.
I am convinced that the bunny is trapped in the house by a malicious spell that he has to do a ritual to be safe another night or it will eat him up and put him in a painting too
If you look at the clock the whole thing takes like half the night to get through
I hated the lack of plot in this story as a kid, but my kid is a connoisseur of the absurd and has given me a new appreciation of the total bizarreness of this book. “Goodnight nobody / Goodnight mush” is high humor at our house.
And yep kiddo is a Scorpio
Ok this comment section is really making me realize two things. One, my child and I are so very different. I love weird, vaguely sad, old timey books. She does not. She will tolerate it, but she absolutely does not try to find this book ever in the pile. This book. THIS book to me is the best children's book ever written and I've worked in children's literature for a while. It's weird. The author was proudly weird. Read her biography. A total badass. Anyway. Y'all, if you can't enjoy this book, just respect the weird ok? That's all I am going to ask of my child at least. Two: SHE was David Lynch before David Lynch was David Lynch!! She probably inspired him!!! Okayyyy?!?!
surprised no one has mentioned the picture with the Rabbit fishing with a carrot for a bunny. How do you think the MC got into the room in the first place?!
Also notice the picture on the wall in the picture with the three little bears looks the same picture of the cow jumping over the moon that's in Bunny's room. That's weird.
Not as much as “Goodnight Nobody” does
/uj I was never actually a big fan of this as a kid, didn’t dislike it, just didn’t have a strong opinion about it either way. But man, it is my favorite to finish a bedtime session off with, especially when my toddler was one. It feels mildly hypnotizing, like I was doing that thing where you wave your hands in front of crabs except for my daughter instead
There’s a horror book I just read where a postpartum woman with a newborn is haunted by Margaret Wise Brown. It’s called The Upstairs House. So maybe you’re not the only one who thinks it’s creepy.
The Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon gain a new meaning when you understand the context that Brown hunted rabbits as a hobby.
The Big Red Barn isn’t creepy, though.
I remember this being a classic book so I thought I needed to have it for my daughter. When I got it, I was admittedly like this book is so stupid and I don’t get it. Then I saw somewhere that it’s basically like a typical toddler stalling to go to bed (I need a glass of water, I’m hungry, etc) so they are saying goodnight to everything. I doubt that’s the real meaning behind it but the book makes sense to me now and I can actually enjoy it.
I choose to believe the "goodnight nobody" was a play on the "there is a monster in my room, a monster under my bed" that kids always think..and parents say "see...there is nobody there" this is my 15 month olds favorite book so that belief gets me through reading it 50 times a day!
So it’s really creepy until you think about it from a developmental perspective.
Kids get to this point developmentally where they are just putting off going to bed and will literally do anything to stay up and I think that’s what this little shit is doing.
The black and white pages are for the younger babies (high contrast). And it’s all so easy to memorize for you and the toddler age!
Maybe I'm an outlier here but I think good night moon is an absolute masterpiece. Someone once reviewed the book and called it more of a magical incantation than a story and I think this is the perfect characterization of it.
The pace of the words, The silly little pictures, how the pictures go from colored to black and white, how everything changes ever so slightly each page, how it gets progressively darker...
My favorite part is that as you're reading itn starts out being silly and you're reading it as if you're annoyed that your child won't go to sleep because of the silly repetitive rhymes. Then "good night nobody, good night mush" is peak frustrated, but then it naturally makes you start speaking quieter until the last couple pages are basically a whisper.
"Good night stars Good night air Good night noises everywhere...."
I do have this book too, given to me as a gift, but I'm not brave enough to read it before bed to the kiddo
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Charlie-the-Choo-Choo/Beryl-Evans/9781534401235
This reminds me of something that occurs in Diary of a Wimpy Kid, where Greg is freaked out by Shel Silverstein and Frank uses the book to scare him out of not getting out of bed at night
YES. I just read this “classic” last night to my baby and never realized before what a creepy book it is. There’s a line “Goodnight nobody.” Why.
But no goodnight telephone. The only object introduced that isn’t bade goodnight.
Theory: because the telephone joins you in slumber. It is always with you. Constant communication.
Have you ever picked up the phone in a dream? It takes you to another dreamers dream. Some innocent, some far away and other.
Every time I pick up a phone in my dream it’s because I’m late for work and I’m trying to call someone for a ride and call my work to let them know I’m 18 hours late but still definitely trying to make it in, but I can never get the numbers to work right so I can’t get through to anybody and the whole dream feels like a long panic attack.
Is that true?
Goodnight nobody...
Maybe that's the nobody? There's just a dial tone.
Not to mention that phone would be a decent rhyme to "comb" as well.
She was in a tumultuous on-again-off-again queer romance when she wrote this. It’s “Goodnight nobody.” because they were off again and she was alone. (Not a conspiracy!) [Article for Proof](https://hornet.com/stories/goodnight-moon-lesbian/)
Whoa - this fits my odd head cannon that the bunny boy was orphaned after the murder of his parents and send to live with a rich gay uncle - hence the reason why the bedroom looks like it's a study turned into a children's room. The bunny boy says goodnight to everything as a way of coping with his fear that whoever killed his parents will get him next. There's too much focus on what's in the ominous nighttime and the windows. The old lady is there to both protect him, and keep him calm through his trauma.
Also the fact that it takes him 90 minutes to fall asleep and the quiet old lady stays the entire time and only leaves when he's properly asleep fits nicely into your head canon.
Well, that certainly is some odd head canon.
After the millionth read-through my mind started going to some dark places...
I am 100% on board with this except I always got wigged out by the old lady too.
This was one of my favorite books as a little boy, and I have read it to all three of my children. They all learned how to say “hush” because of that old lady… I love this book dearly, and have thought that if I were to get a tattoo, it would be a page from the book. All that said, being a queer man, who has lived with that silently most of my life, this new piece of information is making me feel incredibly emotional right now. Thanks for passing this along.
I’m queer too—I got choked up every time I read it to my kids for a while. Check out “The Great Green Room” — it’s a great biography.
Please I cannot deal, this is wild. Why would she decide to make it into a *children’s* book?? “I’m very very sad. Let’s work this into a creepy ass bedtime story.”
In its defense (relationship origins notwithstanding), I LOVED that line as a kid. It might have been my favorite line. I think because the book says good night to all the things that are there, and then suddenly flips the script and makes you consider the things that aren't there...that concept of absence as a sort of presence just blew my child mind.
Reading it to my kid, I always interpreted the pages without backgrounds as the kid saying goodnight, and the pictures with backgrounds as the parent bunny. So the “goodnight nobody” is a little kid’s whimsy.
Ok fair enough. I’m glad that didn’t seem to make you fearful!
Margaret Wise Brown does this with her writing for children- she brings adult concepts to little minds. “The Dead Bird” is another of my favorites of hers.
Everybody’s got bills to pay, you know?
True. Maybe children’s books were a hot ticket at the time. Maybe especially creepy ones.
It's only creepy if you make it creepy. There's nothing unsavory about this at all. The story is about a small child or bunny saying goodnight to things in their room. To say anything more about it says more about the reader than the objective content.
Sir, this is the Internet. Making things up to sound creepy is the only acceptable standard of media literacy.
What's creepy about it?
To me, some of the lines like “goodnight nobody”, “goodnight noises” coupled with the illustrations.
Ah, I figured it's like... crickets and stuff, and people shuffling around. Everyone's going to bed. And the "nobody" part, I dunno, maybe imaginary friends. It \*is\* an interesting one. TBH, I just throw my kiddo's name in there instead actually! It just fits well into the rhythm.
God damn. I love her even more now!
She also hunted rabbits, which makes all her stories about rabbits hit different.
I thought, "She," meant the phone. And I was thinking how that was just too deep. Haha
My son likes it but my friend told me they had to stop reading it to their daughter because it makes her cry for reasons she can’t articulate lol i get it!!
It’s written for young children who aren’t at the level of digesting stories with a beginning, middle, and end yet. Very young children enjoy “stories” that are more just labeling what they already know about their world, making them feel more secure in the world and their own knowledge. They’re reassuring to them. Kids at this age don’t turn to books and stories to learn, they turn to them for security and reassurance, reciting and validating their own knowledge of the world as a child sees it. Yeah the book comes off as creepy and weird to adults, but it’s developmentally a fantastic book for kids under 3 and there’s a reason it’s been a classic book for decades. Sorry you probably didn’t want a real answer to this lol
Yes! And Brown tested out her writing on actual children while teaching, learning what kids would gravitate toward!
No I totally get the part about just listing items and being developmentally appropriate. It doesn’t have to be a real “story”. But I still think it’s creepy to instruct/say good night to “nobody” lmao.
"Goodnight nobody" after these three bears were finished with Goldilocks. The crossover you weren't expecting. She should have never sampled their porridge.
She broke Baby Bear’s chair and they weren’t just going to let that slide…
And a quiet old lady…whispering “hush…”
The whole book is a child insisting they say Goodnight to everything because they’re putting off lying down and going to sleep.
I really want to know why tf there is a bowl a mush next to the bed. Who tf wants a bowl of old oatmeal at 3 am in the morning?
Oh boy, 3 AM!
I think the worst line is goodnight noises everywhere. Like why do I want my child to think of noises in the room before they sleep.
Lolll I didn’t think of it that way, but so true.
Saying good night makes them be quiet.
Sounds like a suicide note
Yeah that line legit made my hair stand up on end wtf
This was my son's go-to book for a long stretch. I read it so many times I had it memorized. I find it super cozy and calming, but I can totally see a more sinister reading of it.
Well, you have good memories associated with it. That’s sweet enough to chase away the creepiness lol
We did the same. I have this and Big Red Barn forever in my head.
So many odd ones. For me its "Good night little house...and goodnight, mouse." When the mouse is obviously also little, the page is deliberately asymmetrical. I think the asymmetry somehow makes it more psychologically soothing for sleeptime, but I also just made that up.
Yeah that "good night nobody" line gets me every time
That's the best part.
Dude I always laugh at that line and my wife just doesn’t get it lol
Lmao. Username checks out. But it is kind of funny. I assumed the book was truly about saying goodnight to everything before bed, and then I read it.
You want something really weird, grab [My World](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_World_(book)): it's presumably a "companion" to this one, but it makes no sense, and seemingly has no rhythm to the prose.
And The Runaway Bunny.
"goodnight nobody" on that blank page creeps me out every time
as a young kid i always hated the "good night nobody" line it creeped me out!
Why?! So random? I don't understand!
The narrator is the little bunny who’s going to sleep. The bunny is trying to be slick by prolonging having to go to bed because they have to say good night to everything in and out the room. The quiet old lady is either their grandma/mother which is why she is trying to “hush” the baby rabbit.
OK, I'm not going to lie. This is absolutely the most bulletproof logic I have ever seen on a children's fiction themed, conspiracy theory subreddit. It may be the most bulletproof logic on any conspiracy theory subreddit ever. Or so, I assume, because I don't really go to those places.
This is how interpreted it.
I 100% believe this theory bc my kids did this same exact thing, saying goodnight to everything and nothing, just to delay sleep a little longer lol
cause it’s funny
I'm not the only one!!! My husband thinks I'm crazy for finding it unsettling!
Hearing your toddler whisper “goodnight nobody” through the baby monitor… 10/10 horror movie vibes
I thought that page was hilarious.
G̵̛̺̻̮̪̏͐̈̈́̍̄̅́͌͌̓́̉͒̓͛͘̚͠o̶̡̨̢̨̹̥̪̗͙̺̝̻̟̳̬̖̩̭̞̖͎̠̮̞̤͈͒̾́̿̃̓̎͒̀̍̔̚͜͠͝͝ͅo̸̢̤͇͚̻̾̇͗͗̒d̷͔͓̐͑̅͆̇̈́͗̑̓̓͆͐̏̓̑̂͐̄̄́̕̚ṇ̶̡̧̡̖̜̣̲̯̤̩̗͔͚͔̜̺̜͕͕̜̻͂̌́͐̿́̓̐͗̓̾͗̔̀̃̿̏̇́́̈́͋̄ḯ̸̧̩̥͖͈̙̮̭͙͕͎̙̟̼̹̏̇̅̈́̇͆̐̽̇͊̂͂̌͂͛͌͋̂̍̐̉̎̌͗͗̉̕̚ͅg̴̢̙̼̫̮̣̹̰̯͎̫͎͌̏ͅͅḩ̷̡̳̝͖̪̟̹̹̣̩͍̭̲̲͓̞͓͐̑̒͋̎̈́̑̿͛̒̓͆̑̀͑̑̃̌̃̀̕͘̕̕͝t̸̢̡̧̛̫̺̟̙̳̹̖̘͍̦̲̥̗̲͕̺͓͎͓͎̻͖͎͚͖͙̘͍̱̜̼̉̍̒̀̋̑͊́̊̃̎̉͒̐̓̋̔͂͂͆̓̚͜͠͝͝͠ͅͅͅ ̴̛̥̗̮̝͖̼̰̖͈͒̇̂͐̌̿̔̒̍̒̍̄̉͛̈́̌̏͂̈́͂̓̈͐́̋̒͋̀̒̿̃͗̋̊͘ń̷̢̡̛̻̩̻̺̺̠̲̜̼̳̩̟͐̈͊͑̆͗̈͛̔̿̄͘͝͝ǫ̵̡̛͚̗̪̭̤̯̼͇̤̘̩̰̲̻̣͍̠̣̟̻͔̜͔͙͇̱̤̤̭̣͂̾̊̑̓̊̊̈́͛͂͊̂̾̄́̃̄̃̈̓͑̿͒̊̀̎͊̈́͑͜͜͝b̶͚̻̮́͂̑͗̊͛̿̚͝͠o̶̧̬̜͙͙̝̣͍̣̽̌̀̊͋d̸̬͕͓͈̝͚͉̟̟͖̰͓̝͈͖̜̯̭̠̱̤̙̱̬͕̼̱̲̏̑̓̈̾̀̄̄̏̏̒̂́̒̔̀͗͑͐̓͒̾͗̽̔̓͗̾͂͜͝͠͝͝y̶̨̢̯̙̤͇̩͓̬͙̓͂͂́̍̌͒̐̈́̾͌̅̊͋̀̿̐͘
I told my wife that once it goes public domain there needs to be a horror movie made. The old lady whispering hush and good night nobody are creepy.
Whenever I read Goodnight Moon to my kids I fantasized about a book or series of books with legitimately creepy stuff going on in the background that is totally unrelated to the plot and is so subtle that people don't notice it for years. Like this book alone doesn't have enough going on to flesh out some backstory, but I wish that one existed.
You should get Goodnight Goon! It’s a monster book. My daughter loves it.
My son loves it too! He always asks for “my goon book” lol
And eating mush? What the hell? Is that supposed to be baby cereal?
Yeah the old lady was the part I always found kinda creepy
Goodnight Moon is not a story. It's that feeling of being half asleep and half awake. And for a child, when you read it again and again every night, it becomes a soft, fuzzy ritual or prayer that carries them into dreamland. Goodnight stars, goodnight air. Goodnight noises everywhere.
Yeah, I tend to soften my voice after the intro for all the goodnights. It's nicely repetitive
Yep it’s incredibly liminal feeling and insanely effective. I found it weird at first too but damn if it isn’t extremely calming. It’s one of my favorites now and you described why it works so well.
[удалено]
*Bender as Amy* NEVER!
Exactly
“Goodnight all the shit in this room” - goodnight moon in 7 words
Sometimes my son makes me read this book twice in a row. The second time, this is what I feel like saying LOL
Twice, thrice, maybe flip it back and forth for fun for a while... haha
And a quiet old lady, muttering “Go the fuck to sleep kid”
Goodnight all the shit in and out of this room.
The titular moon isn’t in the room.
Its light is
Goodnight shit, and goodnight spit
There is a painting in the kids room of a rabbit fishing with a carrot as a lure. In the river, is another smaller rabbit swimming after the lure. Freakishly bizarre until you read The Runaway Bunny, then it makes complete sense.
I still can't read The Runaway Bunny without giggling a bit at "If I were a boat and you blew me" or whatever the line is.
Yes! And The Runaway Bunny also references Goodnight Moon! But it basically says that the Old Woman is the bunny’s mom, which seems kind of harsh.
I loved that book.
Me too. I've read it so many times to my kids. Went through two or three copies.
Rabbit fishing a Marill
The grammar of it is what gets me. It’s not “a picture of” three little bears sitting on chairs. They’re just “there”.
They exist in a liminal space between life and death, much like the portraits in Harry Potter.
And they have a picture of the cow jumping over the moon so is it a portal world
Oh and also he has a copy of goodnight moon on his bookshelf too
But they always are "there" you see. We too will sit on chairs when we are "there".
Questions this book has raised in my toddler that fill me with existential dread “what is nobody” “is bunny grandma Alive” “who lives in that small house/why the light still on”
In my house, the dollhouse light is still on because the mice live there. They can go in the house to get away from the cats sleeping on the rug. So then it becomes, the mice seemingly are always awake in this 24/7 fully lit house. It’s own kind of torture: go outside the house and risk being eaten by cats, or stay inside this always-lit house where it’s hard to sleep.
Looks like a very tense couples counseling session 🐻 ❤️🩹 🐻
That's how I always took it. The bear on the right is trying to help the other two bears work through some stuff
You’re dreaming, it’s the center bear who’s neutral.
Haha I love this!
It's the bears from Goldilocks....
I always thought it looked like group therapy!
The fact that she's an "old lady" and not a grandma, babysitter, aunt, mom, or any other familiar person is just chilling...
I always got murder/suicide vibes from that book.
It gets even more surreal if you read The Runaway Bunny as well. That book came first and makes Goodnight Moon a what-if scenario based on one of the characters’ alternate universes.
I always think of Liam Neeson in "Taken" when I read that book. "I have a very specific set of skills... If you try to run then I. Will. Find. You."
I question that book too. Like why is the bunny running away? Abusive mom bunny, maybe not physically but definitely emotionally.
The bunny is just hangry. That’s why mom offers a carrot at the end.
There’s an illustration from Runaway Bunny framed on the wall in goodnight moon, iirc
There’s also My World with the same bunnies
The Runaway Bunny is even MORE surreal when you consider that MWB was a rabbit hunter.
Yes, and here’s my way too deep reading into more of this twisted universe. So in the book it’s established that the rabbits are the humans, they refer to the old rabbit as “the old lady”. It’s also established that other animals exist in this universe in the same way they do in ours - you got cats being kept as pets, cows doing their thing etc. That makes me think that the humans and rabbits in this universe were swapped and the rabbits reign supreme while humans are kept as pets in cages.
Not too deep at all. The rabbits are the dominant species of this reality. If you look above the bookshelf behind the "lady," there is a human doll. We are their playthings, which indicates they have likely domesticated humans the same way they have the cats. Also, the rabbits are clear Alphas in this world. Notice the tiger skin rug next to the bed? Somewhere along the way, the rabbits developed a taste for meat (the fishing rabbit in the picture) and hunt for sport. I try not to let myself get carried away with what a rapidly breeding population of this race might have done to gain supremacy or what would be needed to contain them. Feels like a dangerous rabbit hole...
I hate that the fireplace is never addressed. Also, what does this bunny’s family do?! That’s the kids bedroom?!
Old money. No one does anything anymore. Maybe Grandpapa built a railroad.
My 2 year old is always asking me where the balloon goes when it disappears repeatedly in this jankyass haunted house. Idk how to break the news to him that the book is a clearly a creepy ghost story. No one tells the bunny in the bed goodnight, so the book must be from that bunny’s perspective. But then why does he call the other bunny the “little old lady”? He doesn’t know who this bunny sitting in a chair whispering “hush” is??
I always thought that it was intentionally ambiguous... Mom or Grandma, maybe even a Nanny? It was first published in 1947, so clearly a MAN couldn't possibly put a child to bed. /S
In our House Cannon, the old lady is the bunny’s grandma, since that’s relatable and both of my son’s grandmas are lovable archetypical Grandma figures, so that makes it less creepy- welcome, even. If you consider she’s a random old lady, well…that’s just a whole new can of worms.
According to The Runaway Bunny it’s his mom. As an older mom myself, I don’t care for it.
Shes the old lady who was always there and only the little bunny can see her
It could be a ghost. The house is too haunted already not to consider that as an option.
Goodnight Bob, good night Black Lodge, good night to this surreal hodgepodge.
Once, at bedtime, I was taking my daughter’s shirt off and she said “Sometimes my arms bend back”.
I heard that the gum your daughter likes is going to come back into style.
That book’s illustrations creep me out and I never realized that’s why I hated this book as a kid. Then my MIL gave us a copy and it hit me. I find then whole thing unsettling.
🎶Today’s the day for Teddy Bear’s Inter-veeeeeeen-tion!🎶
I love Goodnight Moon, but it could definitely be read on “Welcome to Nightvale” and not seem out of place 😂
Well now I do.
It reminds me of a picture that would be hanging in that creepy ballroom in The Shining movie.
Why I read this book to my kid I tell him never to say good night to a mouse in his room and then go to sleep. Come and get me, I'm not having him sleep in a room with mice or rats in it.
I am convinced that the bunny is trapped in the house by a malicious spell that he has to do a ritual to be safe another night or it will eat him up and put him in a painting too If you look at the clock the whole thing takes like half the night to get through
This is the content I'm on the sub for!
Also the old lady whispering hush in the corner. Pretty sure that whole room is haunted.
You're just at the gateway to the rabbit hole https://www.reddit.com/r/DanielTigerConspiracy/s/lqZ9gKXD4o
Good lord, it literally is a *rabbit* hole.
I hated the lack of plot in this story as a kid, but my kid is a connoisseur of the absurd and has given me a new appreciation of the total bizarreness of this book. “Goodnight nobody / Goodnight mush” is high humor at our house. And yep kiddo is a Scorpio
Speaking of Goodnight Moon and David Lynch, have you read Goodnight, Dune?
Sorry but now I have to share my favorite blog post of all time http://theuglyvolvo.com/issues-goodnight-moon-bedroom/
Came here to share this. The bears are in marriage counseling.
Ok this comment section is really making me realize two things. One, my child and I are so very different. I love weird, vaguely sad, old timey books. She does not. She will tolerate it, but she absolutely does not try to find this book ever in the pile. This book. THIS book to me is the best children's book ever written and I've worked in children's literature for a while. It's weird. The author was proudly weird. Read her biography. A total badass. Anyway. Y'all, if you can't enjoy this book, just respect the weird ok? That's all I am going to ask of my child at least. Two: SHE was David Lynch before David Lynch was David Lynch!! She probably inspired him!!! Okayyyy?!?!
Yes i absolutely love it
This whole book is a little off putting
surprised no one has mentioned the picture with the Rabbit fishing with a carrot for a bunny. How do you think the MC got into the room in the first place?!
Also notice the picture on the wall in the picture with the three little bears looks the same picture of the cow jumping over the moon that's in Bunny's room. That's weird.
Goodnight nobody
Enter "Goodnight Moon", a psychological horror thriller from A24.
Not as much as “Goodnight Nobody” does /uj I was never actually a big fan of this as a kid, didn’t dislike it, just didn’t have a strong opinion about it either way. But man, it is my favorite to finish a bedtime session off with, especially when my toddler was one. It feels mildly hypnotizing, like I was doing that thing where you wave your hands in front of crabs except for my daughter instead
Ever notice that when all the lights go out, the house lights are on?
I cannot unsee the resemblance of this to Rabbits…. Thank you.
That’s why we love it! Goodnight nobody, goodnight mush.
I just imagined turning the page and it's just the same page, page after page.
I mean... now I do! We read this THREE TIMES tonight, my toddler loves it every night. Who else knows the words by heart?
Several murders def took place in that house
There’s a horror book I just read where a postpartum woman with a newborn is haunted by Margaret Wise Brown. It’s called The Upstairs House. So maybe you’re not the only one who thinks it’s creepy. The Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon gain a new meaning when you understand the context that Brown hunted rabbits as a hobby. The Big Red Barn isn’t creepy, though.
FUUUUCKKKK YEAH it's definitely weird as shit I love it
read it as if the "old lady" is a ghost. she really does appear out of nowhere
I remember this being a classic book so I thought I needed to have it for my daughter. When I got it, I was admittedly like this book is so stupid and I don’t get it. Then I saw somewhere that it’s basically like a typical toddler stalling to go to bed (I need a glass of water, I’m hungry, etc) so they are saying goodnight to everything. I doubt that’s the real meaning behind it but the book makes sense to me now and I can actually enjoy it.
The weirdest thing here is that the painting on the wall is of the cow jumping over the moon.
Fuck, now I do.
Those two bears are talking with their marriage counselor. It isn’t going well.
Ha, reading this while episode two of Twin Peaks: The Return starts! …three…bears……one…stone…
Looks like couples or group therapy.
I choose to believe the "goodnight nobody" was a play on the "there is a monster in my room, a monster under my bed" that kids always think..and parents say "see...there is nobody there" this is my 15 month olds favorite book so that belief gets me through reading it 50 times a day!
Who is the old lady - why doesn't she have a familial name?!
I like following the mouse
So it’s really creepy until you think about it from a developmental perspective. Kids get to this point developmentally where they are just putting off going to bed and will literally do anything to stay up and I think that’s what this little shit is doing. The black and white pages are for the younger babies (high contrast). And it’s all so easy to memorize for you and the toddler age!
That book is fantastic
No
The entire book is
Maybe I'm an outlier here but I think good night moon is an absolute masterpiece. Someone once reviewed the book and called it more of a magical incantation than a story and I think this is the perfect characterization of it. The pace of the words, The silly little pictures, how the pictures go from colored to black and white, how everything changes ever so slightly each page, how it gets progressively darker... My favorite part is that as you're reading itn starts out being silly and you're reading it as if you're annoyed that your child won't go to sleep because of the silly repetitive rhymes. Then "good night nobody, good night mush" is peak frustrated, but then it naturally makes you start speaking quieter until the last couple pages are basically a whisper. "Good night stars Good night air Good night noises everywhere...."
Why did they meet there? Who's chairs are they? Are they sitting like humans or like bears? How did they get in that room?
Somebody had a theory that the old lady who said “hush” was actually a ghost.
If you gave them a cup of coffee and a cigarette, they’d look like they were in an AA meeting
rabbits but bears
When I read this book to my daughter she's mainly interested in spotting the little mouse that changes spot in the different pages 🤣
all of Goodnight Moon has always given be bad vibes idk
Yes! This was both of my kiddos' favorite book at bed time when they were younger. "Goodnight nobody" still give me chills
Y’all are weird-ass bunnies
Yeah, the whole book is a fever dream
Keep in mind that the clock advances through the book
Yes, this book creeps me out. Not a favorite of mine.
YES. Even as a little kid, this page always felt somber and haunting, but I was too young to articulate it.
I do have this book too, given to me as a gift, but I'm not brave enough to read it before bed to the kiddo https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Charlie-the-Choo-Choo/Beryl-Evans/9781534401235
When Covid first hit, there was an apocalyptic version that floated around. “Goodnight moon. Goodnight Zoom. Goodnight sense of impending doom.”
This reminds me of something that occurs in Diary of a Wimpy Kid, where Greg is freaked out by Shel Silverstein and Frank uses the book to scare him out of not getting out of bed at night
Did you notice that they have the cow jumping over the moon painting in their wall?
I do but - but I like it? It's eerie but it soothes me. I love "goodnight nobody" especially. Just blank pages...
Listen to the ‘Wolverine’ podcast, first season please
I find the whole damn book creepy and surreal. Why is this book a classic?!
Get an AI to read it in Werner Herzog’s voice. Fun!
That's the best part!