Goodnight Clock

Goodnight Moon, written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd, has been a bedtime staple for over 50 years. What the authors did not expect when the book was published in 1947 was that the internet would allow geeks all over the world to deconstruct the beloved childhood story. Burrito Justice studied the pictures in the book and calculated that the little bunny’s bedtime ritual takes an hour and ten minutes, starting at 7:00 and ending at 8:10. For small children, it often takes that long.

But reaction to the post brought up the progression of the moon across the sky -how did that sync up with the clock? After another analysis of the illustrations, it was determined that the moon’s astronomical progression does not match up with the clock! There are also observations about cross promotion of Brown’s books in Goodnight Moon and her other publications, in the post at Burrito Justice. -via Metafilter

An earlier calculation of the chronological length of the book used only the moon's progression and not the clock on the mantle. A bedtime ritual of six minutes was inferred, which is wildly optimistic, as any parent will tell you.