Summer commonly brings a sense of nostalgia like no other season can. To start that summer to always look back to, a book like Goodnight, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann that sparks arguably more nostalgia than perfect summers is the perfect one to end the school year with.
On the surface, the book is simple, easy, and everything that a baby’s first book should be. A zookeeper leaves for home, stopping by each animal cage to say goodnight to the animals in the zoo. However, he doesn’t realize that the zoo’s gorilla has been tailing him, undoing his work, and freeing all the animals who eventually follow him to his home.
There isn’t much to say about the plot or characters, but the attention to detail in the illustrations makes the book one that a wider audience can appreciate. There are separate stories and details to pay attention to each time readers go through the book. Notably, there’s a small mouse who might not be a zoo animal but is just as relevant to the story as the rest—if not more important. The mouse carries a banana found on the very first page to the very end when the treasured banana is finally eaten.
Additionally, a balloon tied to the gorilla’s cage is undone by that same mouse and throughout the book, readers can spot the balloon floating further and further away. Concerning the other zoo animals themselves, each one shares their cage with a tiny stuffed animal version of themselves, and as the gorilla unlocks the cages, the zookeeper’s keys are left behind in the cage padlock, the colors of the cage and key matching.
The words aren’t anything extraordinary, considering it’s “goodnight” and a few zoo animals’ names, but the simplicity is purposeful and the message is clear. Goodnight, Gorilla helps in learning the names of zoo animals from gorilla to armadillo, showcases a zookeeper and his animals who decided it wasn’t time for goodnight just yet—not without them all in the bedroom—and also brings nostalgia: not quite the same as the nostalgia of past summers but something to be treasured all the same.
