That bothered my husband, too, so instead of “Goodnight nobody. Goodnight mush,” he reads “Goodnight bowl of disgusting mush.” Kinda keeps the cadence going and adds a little tension to the plot.
Count me in the anti-Love You Forever camp. Someone gave that to us as a shower gift for our first child and she wanted me to read it aloud to the party. I was at the maudlin end of my hormonal spectrum, where I would have been most susceptible to it if I ever was going to be, and still had this “what the fuck?! How creepy! Call the cops. Have her committed. Get a restraining order, for God’s sake!” response to it, even as I was reading in what I hoped sounded like a sweet and genial mommy-like voice.
My 11-month old loved GnM so much that we went out and bought My World (same author) for her. I really regret that purchase. While GnM is calming and poetic, My World is just nonsensical. Also, the rabbits in My World look creepy and angry. Unfortunately, if you hold the two out in front of her and ask which one she wants, she picks My World every time. I am looking forward to the time when she tires of it.
Count me as another vote in the hating LYF camp. Creepy, creepy, creepy. Kids think it’s hilarious though (I’m a teacher). They really don’t “get” the dying bit.
I clearly remember when my then-toddler son went ballistic while I was reading GnM to him.
He crowed BUNNY ! BUNNY ! and ran to get Runaway Bunny.
He had realized something I’d missed. That there is shared art back and forth. A drawing on the wall in GnM is from Runaway Bunny, and an image from GnM is IN Runaway Bunny.
I loved both books, both kids loved both books. Good stuff.
Goodnight Moon–my kid always wanted to know why the author would wish good night to a “bowl full of mush.” What the hell?
Love You Forever–Creepy, yet still tear-inducing
/Somewhat off topic/
My favorite kids’ book EVAH (which I recommend everyone immediately buy and read): The Tenth Good Thing About Barney by Judith Viorst. Summary: Barney the cat dies and his young owner mourns him and commemerates him by listing the top ten things Barney brought to his life. Barney slept on his bed to warm his feet, he hardly ever pooped on the floor (or something like that). The kid thinks up nine awesome Barney qualities and is stuck for #10 until spring. That’s when the flowers bloom above Barney’s grave and the kid sees that Barney’s death brought life to the earth. Circle of life. It’s the tenth good thing about Barney. Can’t read that book without bawling. Can’t even write about it without tearing up.
Want to help a child deal with the death of a pet? Share The Tenth Good Thing About Barney with him/her.
No kids here, but apparently my brother and I drove our mother crazy wanting to be read The Little Engine That Could over and over again. No real opinion on Goodnight Moon.
I loathe this book. Perhaps because the mom has no boundaries, but also because it was a gift to our whole family from my MIL, who insisted on reading it to us OUT LOUD at Christmas one year. So there was my husband, my FIL, me, our baby, all sitting, all watching and listening to [del]thisfamily’sattentionwhore[/del] my MIL read it to us. All of it. I hate that book. I gave it away (or perhaps I put in it on the virtual pyre that someone built here a few years back for books we loathed).
I love Goodnight Moon. I was never read it as a child, but it was a shower gift to me. My daughter loved the fire in the fireplace–we have video of her pointing and speaking gibberish about the fire. I loved the cadence in the book, the way it slows down (Sandra Boynton has a similar book titled, The Going to Bed Book). I’ve yet to meet a small fry who didn’t like GnM.
I loved Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny so much that both books fell apart. But I also liked Love You Forever- it wasn’t until I was about 16 that I realized how creepy the book is.
Goodnight Moon is amazing because it makes you focus and slow down. I feel like I should buy myself a copy for those nights when I’ve accidentally had too much caffeine and can’t sleep- just thinking the lines through make me want to curl up in a snuggly bed and sleep.
Wow, there’s a lot of hate for Love You Forever. It must be a hearing it as a child as opposed to an adult. My parents made tapes of themselves reading bedtime stories for my sister and me so that when they were out late and we had to have a babysitter or were sleeping somewhere away from our parents, we could listen to a tape of them reading. Love You Forever was one of the books on the tape. (Along with Good Night, Moon, interestingly enough.) So when I think of LYF I’m taken back to being a little child missing my mommy but knowing that nothing will ever stop her from coming back for me, no matter where I was. Death? Phhht. Mommy can’t die, don’t be silly.
I actually never read/heard/saw GnM till I started working daycare years back. I thought it was cute but kinda got a ‘meh’ from me. I have a love/hate relationship with LYF. I love it because it’s a sweet story about maternal love, but I hate it because it’s depressing and I always end up crying. A good book that’s got the same general message as LYF but nowhere near as depressing is Guess How Much I Love You.
So much depends on your own history and baggage. We have GHMILY, and I thought it was cute. My husband (whose father always competed with him - “You got an A in that class? Well when I took it I got an A+!”) hates it because the dad “has to win” the game.
We love the Sandra Boynton books here - favorite so far is the Belly Button Book (we got our first ‘bee-bo!’ from the kid last night while reading it).
Goodnight Moon doesn’t bother me, but I’m not into Love You Forever. We received it at our shower, and have read it a few times, but can’t quite seem to get through it without giggling at the image of an old lady crawling in a window.
However, I’ve been known to burst into tears when my kid learned to do the ‘shh shh shh’ from Rockabye Your Bear by the Wiggles, so I’m not totally heartless.
I don’t remember having Love You Forever as a kid, but I loved Goodnight Moon.
I know my nieces and nephews have both books, but I’ve only read them Goodnight Moon.
The Velveteen Rabbit was the book that took me a while to understand. The idea of the rabbit being sent to the burn pile was too much for me, whether became a real bunny or not.
-Lil
I’m sure it wasn’t for our baby (who was asleep)–it was a not so subtle hint that our parenting could do with some something. I was never quite sure just what she had in mind (and she, when confronted, denied doing anything at all), but she always felt I was too hard on the kids. Since I know just how soft I’ve been, I can laugh about it now, but when you’re a brand new parent, defenses can be high etc. My MIL has no boundaries–it would not have been outside the realm of possibility to show up late at night (no ladder) and try to rock her son, my husband to sleep. Sadly, I am serious here…
I love Sandra Boynton. She’s a genius. I also like some Charlotte Zolotow as well. But LYF, no and no and no.
She’s great - luckily, we got the old standbys at my baby shower since everyone was asked to bring a book, so I’m slowly building our Sandra Boynton collection, too. My sister-in-law also gave us a book called “Ain’t Gonna Paint No More” - if you don’t have this one, I highly recommend it. Big hit - I think it’s because of the rhymes, but it’s a fun book. He loves it.
