Goodnight Moon deserves its reputation. Children love it, of course, but I never tire of it. It’s great poetry, of course, and brilliantly done. The “Goodnight, nobody” is a delightful surprise no matter how often you read it.
The book is a classic and deserves to be.
My 20 month old loves it. She excitedly points out the red balloon. And for some reason the three little bears sitting on chairs fascinate her. Usually we’ll progress past that, then she’ll grab the book and flip back to the bears sitting on chairs page. The only thing wrong with the book from her point of view is that it doesn’t have a duck, she loves ducks.
My older daughter (now 4.5) used to love it, but now she complains when I read it to the baby.
The Littlest Briston (bookworm that she is) loves Goodnight Moon – especially when she gets to put her finger to her lips and whisper “hushhhhhhh!”
We had to stop at Border’s last night…it was the first time Shayla has actually been in a bookstore. Her head just about exploded – she was spinning around, looking this way and that, pointing and yelling “Book! Book! Look, Daddy! Book!”. Once I got her calmed, we walked over to the kid’s section. They had a display with all the classics on it, and she immediately yelled “Moon!”, grabbed a copy, and plopped down to read it.
So, to answer the OP, my little one loves it and I’m fine with it.
Might I just add that I’m always a little skeeved by The Runaway Bunny:
Ewww…is that any way to talk to your mother?
The three little bears sitting on chairs. (picture on the wall)
GnM is good enough (and I like the pictures of other classics hanging on the wall, personally).
Good Night Opus, by Berkeley Breathed is a great book to pick up to read to your kids when they get a little older.
One of my English professors read that to our class the last night - right after we handed in our final papers 
I love Goodnight, Moon. I don’t know Runaway Bunny – is it related to Home for a Bunny? That was a favorite of mine when I was little. I also liked Margaret Wise Brown’s Baby Farm Animals. When I have kids, I will force them to love those books too.
I liked Goodnight Moon when I was a little kid, and I loved reading it to my own kids. For awhile there I had the book memorized.
It is indeed soothing, its rhythms are calming, and the illustrations are muted yet intriguing. It is a perfect bedtime story.
I have always enjoyed all of Margaret Wise Brown’s books; Goodnight Moon is a favorite but in her short career, Brown wrote some timeless stories.
ETA:
Home For A Bunny is different from The Runaway Bunny.
There is also another book with a bunny, one where a bird’s nest gets destroyed in a storm and I think a bunny helps her. I can’t remember the title, though.
Another one is The Dead Bird; its theme is obvious and I think Brown handles it well.
I loved Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny as a kid. My dad always read to me, tho, and he has a spectacular voice so he could have read The Racing Times to me and I probably would have fond memories of that too.
It was a soothing book. It gave some finality to going to sleep. I always had a hard time going to sleep if I knew all this other crap was going on around me. But if the brush was asleep, and the mush was asleep, then I could go to sleep too.
“I’ll love you forever/ I’ll love you for always/ As long as I’m living/ My baby you’ll be.” (That’s my voice getting tinier as I read, until I’m whispering around the big lump in my throat. 
Goodnight Moon is OK, but *Runaway Bunny *is one of my all-time favorites (“Have a carrot.”). Except for the creepy circus page. Home for a bunny is also great, but more of a daytime story. I love the Garth Williams illustrations.
Love, love, love Good Night, Moon. It’s so calming. My son loved it. I loved reading it to him.
We also loved Good Night, Gorilla. Not as calming, but very cute, very funny.
I read “Goodnight Moon” to my kid as a bedtime book when he was a wee sprite. Each page gets darker and darker…and your voice gets tinier and tinier…and it puts the kid to sleep. I like it, and it does serve its purpose.
A friend gave me “Love You Forever” and it is one of only two books that I have ever thrown in the TRASH. Not given to Goodwill. (The other one was a used book about spiders, and I couldn’t look at it or touch it, so out it went.) Not only is it incredibly depressing, but it forces kids to confront their own parents’ death. “When are you going to die? You’re not going to die soon, are you? Will you die when I have a baby?” You know, kids at the age targeted by LYF have enough anxiety about being abandoned by their parents, and they aren’t fooled for a moment by the son’s gray temples. The book produces fear, sadness and a sense of loss for no reason. Plus the mom is creepy. Breaking and entering isn’t sweet, it’s pathetic. Worst children’s book EVER.
Theobroma
Aw man, when I saw the Subject Line I thought you were talking about the amazing song by Shivaree that was in Kill Bill Vol.2. I love it! Haven’t heard of the book though.
I like it. But I always prefered Arnold Lobel or Maurice Sendak.
My mother hates Goodnight Moon, unsurprisingly after having had to read it over & over with each of her four children. Apparently she can still repeat it verbatim, even after all these years. Sorry, mum.
That’s me too. I love that book. Yes, it deals with death but I’ve never brought it up to my son and he hasn’t noticed. I rock him and sing it to him because he IS my baby and will be for as long as I live. Robert wrote is for his children, the ones that his wife miscarried iirc.
I don’t think I’ve ever read Goodnight Moon. I’ve seen it, heard of it certainly, but never read it. (Just like Pat The Bunny, I see it all over the place but never got it for him) I had a lot of my books, but some are discontinued and of course some of them are the ones that got wrecked when he got into the bookshelf and reading when I was cooking supper. No more Huff n Puff Express.
Goodnight Moon sucked. What made it famous was luck. Just when mass marketing and book clubs were taking off. It was pushed, rather than pulled, in industry parlance. The publisher pre-stocked it in stores to get a false best seller ranking. There are more of that year with the same story, all with dubious appeal.
“Uh, Mom, um, this is Kevin.”
I am soooo going to hell!
I hated Love You Forever. I don’t blame anyone for throwing that book out. Blech! All the other Robert Muncsh books are great for older kids - they have a wonderfully warped sense of humor. LYF - the child’s guide to Jocastic Stalker Moms - is the only exception I found.
Goodnight Moon is nice for younger kids. Repetitive, soothing, and has that useful “go to sleep now” theme.
Why is it that kids want the same book every night, and over and over every night? That will kill any book for an adult.
It’s not too bad. But I swear, every time I get to “Good night, nobody,” I think, “What the fuck?” However, I do love, “Good night stars, good night air, good night noises everywhere,” so by the end I’ve gotten over it.
Except, it’s 50 years later and people are still reading it.
