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Goodnight Moon redrawn as Good Morning Zoom for Covid-era kids

<span>Photograph: Philomel/AP</span>
Photograph: Philomel/AP

The classic 1947 children’s picture book Goodnight Moon has been reimagined for the coronavirus era as Good Morning Zoom, replacing Margaret Wise Brown’s lights and red balloons with “indoor sports” and “couch-pillow forts”.

Lindsay Rechler, a director at a global investment bank and the mother of two young children, originally self-published a version with illustrations by June Park. It has been acquired by Penguin Random House in the US, where it will be published in October.

Where Brown’s version opens, “In the great green room / There was a telephone / And a red balloon”, Rechler starts her parody: “In your own living room / There was a computer and … / News that was gloom.”

“It seemed fitting because Goodnight Moon takes place exclusively in one room or home and that is how I felt about quarantine,” Rechler, who lives in Manhattan, told parenting site Kveller. “Zoom was a nice play on words and fitting, given our new reality and this concept of replacing hugs with technology.”

Her story features Zoom meetings with classmates, board games, screen time and sirens outside, before ending on a hopeful note: “Good morning world / I’ll see you soon.”

Rechler said she never thought she’d write a children’s book, but that she wanted to explain why her children’s world had changed in a way they would understand. “I was working around the clock in mid-March and spent sleepless nights trying to come up with ways to explain to my children why their world was turned upside down,” she told Kveller. “Why did we go from ‘no-iPad’ to ‘here’s an iPad and we are mandating that you sit in front of it for exactly 47 minutes while all your friends talk about their favourite book or toy?’ Or why did we go from playdates and seeing grandparents each weekend to exclusively FaceTime calls?”

Penguin Random House said the picture book “gives voice and hope to our youngest” and “expresses the emotions young children might be feeling during the global pandemic”. All of author’s net proceeds will be donated to coronavirus relief charities.

Good Morning Zoom is not the first reimagining of Brown’s classic. In 2011 Goodnight iPad opened: “In the bright buzzing room there was an iPad and a kid playing Doom / And a screensaver of a bird launching over the moon”, while Goodnight Dune added a little Frank Herbert to the mix. “In the great no-room / There was a floating baron / And a view of two moons / And a picture of – / Shai-hulud bursting out of the dune.”