Almanac of Story Tellers: Margaret Wise Brown

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of May 23rd

 ___________________________________________________________________________

     It is the 143rd day of the year, leaving 222 days remaining in 2022.

    On this date in 1910, the children's book author Margaret Wise Brown was born.

   

    Brown told stories to young children, using simple words and a simple style, with colorful, description illustrations. She called her style the "here and now."

    She is credited with writing and publishing the first children's "board book," which is for  toddlers and printed on heavy stock cardboard. When the Wind Blew, published in 1937, tells the story of an old woman who lived by the sea with 17 cats. The woman found joy in all of them, but particularly with a small, grey kitten.

     She is best known for two other books that she wrote and Clement Hurd illustrated: The Runaway Bunny, and the classic Goodnight Moon.

    In The Runaway Bunny, a tiny bunny tells its mother it wants to run away. The mother responds that wherever the bunny goes, she will follow.

    Goodnight Moon, still popular with parents today, has a mother and child saying goodnight to all the objects in the child's room.

     Wise wrote more than 100 books, many which Hurd illustrated. In 1938, she was hired as the first editor at W.R. Scott, a children's book publisher.

    Wise died in 1952.