Goodnight Moon is filled with references to classic fairy tales and nursery rhymes, including
Goldilocks,
Hey Diddle Diddle, the
Three Little Kittens, and a reference to the old tale of the princess with the magic household objects (in which a
mirror turns into a
lake, a
comb a
forest, etc. Read
Philip Jose Farmer's
The Unreasoning Mask for another take on this strange tale).
There is one frightening picture in an otherwise gentle book. On the "Goodnight room" page, you can clearly see a framed picture of a rabbit flyfishing in a stream. However, his bait is a carrot, and he is catching a baby rabbit like the one going slowly to sleep in this story. Lovejoyman points out the book pictured on the little bunny's nightstand is actually a copy of Goodnight Moon.
This classic has been adapted into other forms, most notably the Animaniacs version, "Nighty-Night Toon", a litany of characters from the new Warner pantheon.
This writeup, at one time, contained the entire text of the book. This portion has been deleted for copyright policy compliance. Thank you.