If you’re a parent like me, chances are you have a well-worn copy of Goodnight Moon in your home. Margaret Wise Brown’s bestselling classic has been a bedtime reading staple for generations, and its popularity has only increased over the years.

But after reading Dan Olson’s thoughtful analysis of Goodnight Moon, and the spiritually confused life of its author, I don’t know if I can read the book in quite the same way. Olson’s take on the children’s book as a sort of “secular prayer,” intended to reframe traditional nighttime liturgy for a godless world, makes sense to me once you think about the book’s content. As Olson writes, “Instead of appealing to a God who holds all things together in his ordered creation, the liturgy of Goodnight Moon simply observes the randomness of an inexplicable universe: Goodnight nobody. Goodnight mush.”

To be sure, I don’t see a reason to stop reading this classic to my kids. I have another son on the way, and I look forward to giving him the experience of the book’s soothing cadence and colorful pictures. But I’ll also follow Olson’s advice to Christian parents: “The next time you read Goodnight Moon with your kids at bedtime, don’t stop at ‘goodnight noises everywhere’ End your routine with bedtime prayers.”