None of those qualities are lost in this edition of Margaret Wise Brown's classic.īig Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown has been a truly influential book on my life. Her pictures brim with personality, color and humor. I just know that my toddler likes it.įelicia Bond is very well-known for her illustrations in the 'If You Give.' series, and rightfully so. It could be the lullaby effect of the book. It could be the animal noises interspersed in the story. That's why an adult at a child's bedtime would like. And, also like Goodnight Moon, as the book winds down, the phrases become shorter until they just disappear and the story is over. Its phrases end with a gentle rhyme, not forced-feeling rhyming couplets. It is about impossible to not lull your voice when reading it. Why?īig Red Barn, like Goodnight Moon, reads like a lullaby. I vaguely remembered that she had no children and died young - I was right: she never married, had no children and died of a post-surgery blood clot in 1952 at the age of 42.

Before I wrote this review, I had to do a little research on the author. Margaret saw herself as something else - a writer of songs and nonsense.Īnother book has migrated downstairs for my review. They say she was a creative genius who made a room come to life with her excitement. Margaret died after surgery for a bursting appendix while in France. The puppies had licked all the paint off the paper. When he woke up, the papers he painted on were bare. The illustrator painted many pictures one day and then fell asleep. One time she gave two puppies to someone who was going to draw a book with that kind of dog. She also taught illustrators to draw the way a child saw things. She tried to write the way children wanted to hear a story, which often isn't the same way an adult would tell a story.

She said she dreamed stories and then had to write them down in the morning before she forgot them. There are many scraps of paper where she quickly wrote down a story idea or a poem. She thought this made children think harder when they are reading. Sometimes she would put a hard word into the story or poem. She liked to write books that had a rhythm to them. Most of her books have animals as characters in the story. Even though she died nearly 70 years ago, her books still sell very well. Margaret Wise Brown wrote hundreds of books and stories during her life, but she is best known for Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny.

The big red barn margaret wise brown