Lucy Sprague created the Bank Street Experimental School in New York City to experiment with her theories of the proper way to educate young children. A teacher at the Bank Street School, Margaret Wise Brown, began to write children's books using Sprague's techniques to express the "here and now" for children. As a result she wrote the still very popular children's picture book GOODNIGHT MOON first published in 1947. A young bunny says goodnight to the familiar objects he sees in his room when he goes to bed. "Goodnight room, goodnight moon, Goodnight cow jumping over the moon. Goodnight light, and the red balloon...." The popularity of the simple story book grew from some 1500 copies in 1953 to over 4 million copies by 1990 and became one of the top 100 children's picture books of all time. Margaret Wise Brown continued to write numerous books and poems for children. A number of her unpublished poems recently discovered in an old trunk owned by her sister were published in March.
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