Good Night, Gorilla
15. May 2024 I 1001kinderbuch
Author and illustration: Peggy Rathmann; Publisher: Random House N.Y.Puffin ; Age recommendation: from 0 years; Year: 2022; Pages: 24; Cover: Cardboard picture book and maxi edition
Peggy Rathmann’s “Good Night, Gorilla” is a magical bedtime story for very young and older children about falling asleep and waking up, about feeling good and about being at home.
The story is as simple as it is mischievous: the little gorilla steals the key from zookeeper Joe during his evening rounds. He trots after Joe, opens all the zoo cages with the key and invites the other animals to come along. To the elephant, the lion, the giraffe, the hyena … Everywhere they say “Good night” and open the cage. In the meantime, quite a long queue of animals has formed. Everyone joins in and runs after zookeeper Joe: out of the zoo, into his house, through the corridor, up into the bedroom. I don’t want to give too much away now. The narrative strand of the picture story alone has so many amusing twists and turns that there is a new surprise on every page.
“Good Night, Gorilla” is a story about security and feeling at home. The animals are drawn to where they feel at home. In fact, judging by the reactions of everyone involved, this is not the first time this little story has happened. Do the animals visit zookeeper Joe every night? They obviously feel safe there. Does Joe really not realise that a caravan has formed behind him? Does he perhaps just like to take his friends from the zoo with him?
Rathmann’s book is special because it is a children’s book for very young children and yet already has so many layers of narrative. It plays with many small stories within the story. Every time you read it, you notice new details: You can follow the path of the balloon and discover who is watching the evening spectacle from the window. At the same time, the little gorilla addresses the readers themselves and makes them accomplices to his theft. This complexity expresses an appreciation of the attention of even the smallest readers. So you can read the book again and again and discover something new each time.
Peggy Rathmann’s play with colours and figures is so extraordinarily beautiful that you want to lose yourself in the book and its colours. She captures the blue hour, the time when dusk colours everything in a blue-violet, with bold brushstrokes. You can feel the night falling and the warm glow of the zookeeper Joe’s torch.
Peggy Rathmann’s “Good Night, Gorilla” is a magical bedtime story. Poetry for children in blue and purple.
