"Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd is a story many people, young and old, know well.
"What I see in it is its simplicity and its humanity," said Patricia Ward, Head Scientist and AVP Exhibitions and Partnerships at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (MSI).
She said the MSI is bringing this story to life with a new immersive "Goodnight Moon" experience, presented in the Museum's Griffin Studio. She said it combines the beloved children's story with the science of sleep, where visitors will discover more about dreams, nightmares, lunar cycles and how astronauts sleep in the microgravity of space.
"Every day we go to sleep, we wake up, and I think that's a great opportunity to talk a little bit about the science of sleep," she said. "You get that a taste of that before you enter into the actual storybook itself."
As visitors enter the first room of the exhibit, they're greeted by walls of digital projections sound tracked to relaxing music. Then they'll move into the iconic Great Green Room from "Goodnight Moon."
"There, you begin to see the little visual characters come to life, and then it's story time," she said. "You hear the story. Then you go into the final room, and you get to just kind of play and delightfully interact with these visual elements."
She said the exhibit is "about bringing 'Goodnight Moon' to life."
"You have this little book; it's a small thing, and then you see it larger than life, and you're in it, you're inside it, and you get to interact with it in a very different way," she said.
She said she hopes children and adults walk away from the exhibit with a newfound love for the story and that it helps younger children better understand sleep.
"Sleep can be a scary thing for a small child," she said. "This is just a lovely way to ease children into a good night's sleep."
"Goodnight Moon" opens Thursday and closes on Jan. 3, 2027. The exhibit is included in General Admission.
