Picture Book Review: The Important Thing about Margaret Wise Brown by Mac Barnett

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

The Important Thing about Margaret Wise Brown by Mac Barnett. Illustrated by Sarah Jacoby. 42 p. Balzar + Bray/ HarperCollins Publishers, May, 2019. 9780062393449. (Review of finished copy borrowed from public library.)

This post is as much rumination as review. I did read Goodnight Moon to my sons. I loved the bunny's bedtime ritual of saying goodnight to everything. Our ritual was reading each night after dad sang taps. Two of my boys shared a room and each got to choose two books (and later, two chapters) for me to read each night. Dad took turns when he could. He was more a storyteller though, and regaled them with The Castle Boys, an original serial starring them, which invariably wound them up instead of winding them down. 

Runaway Bunny was less appealing to me and thankfully, to them as well. (Egad, that mother!) But our love of Goodnight Moon had us poking around Brown's other books and mostly enjoying them. We were surprised to learn that she had written over a hundred books and especially surprised after learning that she died so young at age 42.

Which is the exact number of pages in this picture book "biography." In some respects, The Important Thing about Margaret Wise Brown is less a biography and more a conversation about a remarkable person and what is important. Barnett mirrors MWB's storytelling, which deeply respected a child's intellect, wonder and capacity to think deeply. 

Picture books are typically 32 pages long. Occasionally, they are 40 pages and sometimes, a longer form picture book will weigh in at 48 pages. I don't know why. I'm too lazy to research the reasoning. Perhaps it's some kind of printer math or publisher rule. But, like MWB, Mac Barnett is a rule breaker. Of course, there's a good, writerly, symbolic reason for insisting that this story contain 42 pages, but he breaks the rules in other ways. Such as telling the (presumably) young reader that MWB skinned one of her rabbits after it had died and wore its pelt. Yikes. She liked to swim naked in cold water (sure to send kids into peals of laughter), bought a whole cartful of flowers with the money she made from her first book and how her books were not like other books for children at the time. 

And just as MWB would suddenly shift gears in one of her stories, Mac Barnett switches from biographical tidbits about MWB to NY Public Library Librarian, Anne Carroll Moore. She was a gatekeeper whose stamp of approval was sought if a children's story were to succeed. Apparently, Anne Carroll Moore did not approve of MWB. He digresses for a few pages illustrating just how eccentric Anne Carroll Moore was (despite the many ways she advanced library services to children) before getting back to MWB and the hilarious stunt she and her editor Ursula Nordstrom pulled when they weren't invited to a snooty party at the NYPL.

The illustrations are evocative of Garth Williams, who illustrated more than a few of MWB's picture books. Whimsical and watery, the retro feel of the pictures are perfect here. 

The story ends as abruptly as Brown's life with the explanation that lives can end suddenly and can be many things from happy to sad but that MWB wrote important books. 

Typically, biographies contain back matter. Little things like author's notes, which might add detail that didn't quite fit into the story; or source notes; or suggestions for further reading. This lovely, provocative story of the life of Margaret Wise Brown contains no back matter whatsoever. Interesting choice. This is definitely going into my picture book biography unit. I can't wait to see what my students make of The Important Thing about Margaret Wise Brown.