We have a Latin phrase that often gets used in my house: Repetitio mater studiorum. “Repetition is the mother of learning.” It’s a fairly true phrase, especially when you’re memorizing poetry or math facts. But this phrase can also strike you as you reread Goodnight Moon for the 683rd time. Children have a wonderful capacity for repetition — in fact, G. K. Chesterton compared a child’s love of repetition to the joy God may take in making the sun rise each morning. But it can be both amusing and frustrating for the adult on the receiving end. I was reminded of this phenomenon recently when I was spending time with family and college friends. My sister’s son is too young to care much about books, but he does sometimes enjoy snuggling up with Don and Audrey Woods’s The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear. My sister brought this book along on our trip, and our friends’ children quickly became enamored of it, begging for it again and again. No other book was brought out the entire weekend, but I’m deeply ashamed to say I still don’t have it memorized.
This gem of a book was popular in my childhood home and uses lots of fascinating techniques to hold the reader’s attention. The art, of course, is bold and engaging, and it keeps our focus on the story’s main characters: the mouse, the strawberry, and the bear. Of the three, we only ever see two — the bear never makes an appearance, but his presence is felt throughout the tale, and he seems to be lurking in the background.
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