Good Night Washington, DC

The Good Night Our World series of board books is a great idea in principle: a series of books that introduces little people to various places in our world.

Each book proceeds from “Good Morning” to “Good Night” and visits the city or place the book is about through all four seasons. There are more than a dozen different titles in the series right now, with more being added regularly.

The books are sturdy and a good 6″X6″ size, easy for little hands to hold. The illustrations are colorful and engaging.

We have Good Night Washington, DC, and I was hoping to get an accurate representation of some of the city’s major landmarks, and in a general sense we did.

There are illustrations of the White House, the National Zoo, cherry blossom trees, the Washington Monument and the National Mall, and a couple of the Smithsonian’s more popular museums, the Air and Space Museum and the Museum of Natural History.

There is the Potomac River, Library of Congress, an illustration of lawmakers at work, the Supreme Court, reporters, the Lincoln Memorial, some tourists sleeping in a hotel room, and the skyline at night.

But the book is lacking in specifics that I would have liked to see, some of which two of my kids, age 3 and 5, could pick out for themselves. The supposed National Zoo is just a picture of a generic zoo, with all the animals playing in a common area.

We would have liked to see a picture of the animated clock tower and a picture of the pandas, certainly our showcase animal. Something that is particular to our zoo. The picture of the Lincoln Memorial looks, in a general sense, like the Lincoln Memorial, except for one thing: it is missing the big statue of Lincoln. When my 5 year old asked where the guy with the big feet was, I couldn’t answer him. Additionally, the picture of the Washington Monument looks like it is off by itself, with the city in the distance behind it, rather than right up near it.

The company says that a portion of the proceeds go to support babies in need; how and through what organization isn’t noted. It’s always good to support charity, the books are well made, and the illustrations are lovely in their generality. I think the series is a great idea, I just wish the publisher had paid a little more attention to detail.