Margaret Wise Brown
Recognized in the Creative Minds Montessori 2026 Teacher’s Choice list.
Margaret Wise Brown is one of roughly one hundred authors whose work was selected by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori for the 2026 Teacher’s Choice list — 120 books chosen across four reading stages, from first lap-reads to first chapter books. Their 2 selected books were chosen for how precisely they meet children at a real developmental moment. This recognition cannot be bought: no author or publisher paid to appear on our lists, and we take no commission on any book sale.
About Margaret Wise Brown
Margaret Wise Brown (1910–1952) was the great pioneer of writing for the very young. Trained at New York's Bank Street College, she studied how small children actually listen — and built books around rhythm, repetition, and the 'here and now' of a child's world rather than fairy-tale convention.
She came to children's books almost by accident, after deciding she wasn't suited to teaching; her experimental Bank Street training became the laboratory for a completely new kind of picture book. She wrote hundreds of them in barely two decades, often under pen names, and Goodnight Moon alone has never been out of print.
Also by this author: The Runaway Bunny · Big Red Barn · The Important Book
Publisher page: harpercollins.co.uk/blogs/authors/margaret-wise-brown
Selected for the 2026 Teacher’s Choice list
Part of The Best Children’s Books by Age, chosen by the teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX.