Margaret Wise Brown

Margaret Wise Brown in that beautiful blonde that feature on the paper cover that wraps the hardcover version of Goodnight Moon. I pondered that photo for many years. Children's book writers never seem that glamorous. "Who could this chick be?" I wondered. I read an article about her and the information led me to a biography about her. She is fascinating. She has written far more than you can imagine. I am not going to spoil it for you here but have a dig into her website and let the journey begin there.
I bought The Important Book on a whim and was at first dismissive. But after the website's pep talk about how she is the inventor of the modern day children's book, I took another look at this zen like book. This is a book that is pointing out the main aspect of what matters in the importance of a thing. It starts with a spoon. "The importance of a spoon is that you eat with it." She then goes on to describe the spoon. But finished the description with her original point about eating with it. She treats all her subjects the same, from a daisy to the snow.
The illustration come from a different era, as the cover photo suggests. They are from a time, late 1940's when there was a colour budget. Leonard Weisgard and Margaret Wise Brown must have decided to trade some monotone pages for full on colour in others. The fonts are as inventive as any Lauren Child book of today. It won't be your child's favourite book but it should make an impression on them.