Seventy-five years after publication, Goodnight Moon remains the quintessential American bedtime book, the tenderest of lullabies and the most affirming of visions of a color-splashed and nurturing world in which all children have their rightful place. NPR Arts senior producer/reporter Elizabeth Blair asked Leonard to explain why the Great Green Room continues to be sleepy toddlers’ favorite destination after all these years.
In their interview, Marcus shared how the Bank Street practitioners learned that children, “want to know about the world they’re in at the moment, starting with their own room and their own surroundings and their own street. The noises they hear, the airplanes that go overhead, the trains and cars that go by, they thought all those everyday things were wonderful from a young child’s perspective.”