Goodnight Truth, Goodnight Honesty

The Background:

"Goodnight Moon," the children's classic by Margaret Wise Brown, has gone smoke-free. In a newly revised edition of the book, which has lulled children to sleep for nearly 60 years, the publisher, HarperCollins, has digitally altered the photograph of Clement Hurd, the illustrator, to remove a cigarette from his hand. "It is potentially a harmful message to very young kids," (Kate) Jackson (editor in chief of HarperCollins Children's Books) said, "and it doesn't need to be there."

The Inevitable Result:

In the great green room there was ... A cordless telephone. And a red balloon, non-helium and securely tethered out of toddler reach. And a picture of the cow jumping over the moon, with a warning label never to try this with cattle or indeed any animals without parental supervision. And there were three little bears, roaming freely in their native habitat, secure in their endangered-species status. And two little neutered kittens. And a pair of mittens, purchased from a Cambodian collective.

Read the whole thing.