My World (book)

My World features what appears to be the same rabbit child from its predecessor, but the bunny's consciousness now expands in scope beyond the green bedroom to a wide world. The child's understanding of the world exists in relation to his parents: "My slippers. / My pajamas. / Daddy's pajamas," and "Mother's chair. / My chair. / A low chair. / A high chair. / But certainly my chair." The child engages in various activities in parallel to his parents: brushing his teeth, playing with his toy car, etc. The book ends with his parents sitting nearby as the rabbit child swings from a tree branch, thinking "Your world. / My world. / I can swing / Right over the world."

As with Goodnight Moon, Brown's text is minimal, with a dreamlike quality and a narrative that conforms to a child's sense of logic. The artwork is composed of alternating spreads, mostly black-and-white with occasional color spreads.

Upon its release in 1949, the New York Times wrote of the book,

My World is for the very youngest readers, onlookers, and listeners of 2 to 4, who will recognize in the snug bunny home many of those first objects they are learning to call by name. ... [T]he book does furnish a pleasant mnemonic device while interest lasts, and there are cozy pictures by Clement Hurd full of familiar, recognizable details to help give a small child a comfortable sense of belonging.^[4]

Publishers Weekly wrote of the re-issued edition, "The volume's words and pictures stretch the boundaries of its time-honored predecessor, affirming that there is, indeed, a warm and welcoming world beyond the great green room."^[2]

Hillary Williamson of BookLoons wrote that although, "the author's poetic style and the illustrator's familiar scenes convey the same charm and subtle comfort as the original," My World lacked "... the focus of ... Goodnight Moon."^[5]

In Claudia Pearson's Have a Carrot: Oedipal Theory and Symbolism in Margaret Wise Brown's Runaway Bunny Trilogy, the author posits that "My World ... explores the bunny-boy's competitive approach to the father he simultaneously resents, admires and loves, while the mother rabbit slips from prominence in his life and into the shadows."^[6]