Little Fur Family

Margaret Wise Brown and Garth Williams were two of the twentieth century's finest picture-book collaborators, and this 1946 classic earns its place alongside Goodnight Moon. A little fur child moves through a sun-dappled day in the woods — touching bark, listening to birds, catching a small creature and letting it go — before returning home to the warmth and love of family at bedtime. Brown's text alternates rhyme and prose with rich onomatopoeia, making it a joy to read aloud. Williams's paintings are intimate and warm. The Chicago Daily Tribune called the illustrations truly beautiful, and that assessment holds. The honest caveat is that the book is entirely mood-driven with very little plot — children who want a story with stakes may find it quiet to the point of stillness. But for a bedtime read that wraps a child in the feeling of being loved and safe, it is nearly perfect.