Margaret Wise Brown Books In Order

Publication Order of Noisy Books

Publication Order of Over the Moon Books

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Esphyr Slobodkina Illustrated Books

Publication Order of Jerry Pinkney as Illustrator Books

Publication Order of Teri Weidner as Illustrator Books

Margaret Wise Brown was one of the most prolific children’s fiction authors and editor of childrens works. She is best known as the author of the 1942 published “The Runaway Bunny” and the 1947 published “Goodnight Moon.”

The author was born and brought up in Brooklyn, in the small suburb of Greenpoint. She was the child of Robert Bruce Brown and Maude Margaret who were very well off. Growing up, her parents did not have a great marriage and she spent much of her childhood in boarding school in Europe.

Despite the many struggles her parents had, Margaret never let it get to her as she spent much of her time outdoors, given that she was a very adventurous and imaginative child.

She would later on become one of the most prolific authors in children’s fiction with more than 100 titles to her name at the time of her death. She also left behind troves of unpublished collections and picture books that were unearthed following her death.

Over her long career, she was known for producing fresh and innovative works that would make her a driving force behind what was the revolution in children’s fiction not only as an editor, but also as an author.

Brown graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the Virginia based Hollins college in 1932. She then moved to New York City where she got a job teaching students at Bank Street School.

But writing was something she always wanted to do and in no time at all she started penning children’s fiction. She wanted to come up with stories that portrayed girls as equal to boys and rose above bland sentimentality.

Margaret was a dawdler and dreamer in the best sense of the word and often spent a lot of time researching her plots, and subjects. Nothing is ever too great to meticulously work on from the clouds in the sky to the tiny flowers on the ground.

All she wanted to do was explore the sense of awe a child always has discovering the world around them.

In 1937, she published When the Wind Blew her debut novel under Harper & Bros. The work was an instant success and set the stage for what would become a very successful career.

In her 2016 published biography, Amy Gray described Margaret Wise Brown as an incredibly talented, quirky and clever author. She was known for living life with passion as she could afford a luxurious life given her huge royalties and many troubled and long affairs with both women and men.

Her stories and books still remain very popular among kids of different ages. Her novels have been known for how they often incorporated animals as the lead characters in the stories.

Margaret also liked to open novels full of rhythm. She would occasionally include hard words into her poems and stories just to make her audience think much harder when they consumed the works.

She used to write all the time and the inheritors of her estate found many poems and story ideas in her belongings. She often said that she got many of her story ideas in dreams and often had to dash out of bed to go write them up, so that she would not forget them.

Margaret always tried to pen her stories in the voice of children and also trained illustrators to illustrate just the way a child would see things.
The author died in France of a bursting appendix in 1952.

Margaret Wise Brown’s novel “The Runaway Bunny” is the story of a little rabbit who informs his mother that he would run away. He becomes a circus acrobat, a fish, a sailboat, a rock on a mountain, a bird, a hidden garden crocus and then a boy. Ultimately, he decides he is better off just being a rabbit.

His mother appears as a trapeze walker, a fisherman, a cloud, a mountain climber, a tree, a gardener and ultimately just a mother bunny.

The work comes with some beautiful illustrations of boy bunny and his mother, the latter who is portrayed as a helicopter parent who stifles her son.

It makes for quite an amusing story as the little bunny tries everything to get out from under his mother’s thumb but it does seem as if there is no escaping it.

However, another perspective is that the mother bunny is trying to be there for her child no matter what.

The scenes are creatively illustrated with the boy rabbit becoming all manner of things. It is an imaginative and peaceful read that makes for a beautiful bedtime story for kids.

“Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown is a classic in which one small bunny says goodnight to all the pets and objects in his room. He has the habit of telling the audience of the many things he spots around his room, just as he is about to sleep.

Clement Hurd makes some creative and beautiful illustrations as he paints the little bunny’s room in some brightly colored paint. The carpet is red and the walls are green but you do not get the Christmasy feeling you usually would.

They are also highly creative images as they include a painting of three bears colored in white and black among other colorful animals in the bunny’s room.
As the story progresses, Clement Hurd progressively makes the colors darker to illustrate that the little bunny is finally preparing to go to sleep and is saying goodnight to everyone and everything in his room.

This is a true classic that would make for an excellent read to teach children about different objects in the home and also as a bedtime story.

Margaret Wise Brown’s novel “My World” is the companion piece to the novel “Goodnight Moon.” It introduced a cryptic book that a child has been forbidden from beholding. It turns out that it is full of blank pages which Mother and Child stare at in grim silence.
Later on the child takes out his toy car but it does not go far because he is trying to ride it over his teddy bear.
The work ends with a deliberately cryptic question that echoes the jumbled and foggy nature of the work.

One Response to “Margaret Wise Brown”

1. Shelly Brown: 4 months ago

   Thanks for sharing this long list of Margaret Wise Brown’s work.

   Reply