There is a certain romance to the story behind “The Moon Shines Down” by Margaret Wise Brown. The unfinished manuscript was found in a cedar trunk years after the author’s death. The pages were in the trunk for so long that “the onionskin paper had yellowed and the paperclips that held the pages together had rusted,” says the book’s publisher.

Margaret Wise Brown based “The Moon Shines Down” on a prayer frequently found on cross-stitch samplers: “I see the moon, and the moon sees me. God bless the moon, and God bless me.” It’s a pleasant little refrain, and it’s repeated frequently throughout the book as a very cute little koala travels around the world, sharing children’s bedtime routines with your little reader.

Continue reading “Brown’s lost ‘Moon’ story doesn’t measure up.”