If you’ve ever paid a visit to the great green room, then you know what’s there: a telephone, a red balloon, a picture of a cow jumping over the moon.

“Goodnight Moon,” the children’s bedtime classic, was originally published in 1947, yet it hasn’t aged at all in terms of how today’s parents view it. It’s still a baby-shower staple and a book many moms and dads can recite by heart – years after their children have outgrown it.

Now, many decades later, some of the previously unreleased manuscripts of “Goodnight Moon” author Margaret Wise Brown are making their way to publishing houses, and Mequon illustrator and author Linda Bleck is one of the select few chosen to pair up with the famous writer, who died at age 42 in the 1950s.

Wise Brown, who described herself as a writer of songs and nonsense, left behind hundreds of pages of material that were stored for decades in a trunk in her sister’s attic.

One of those efforts was “The Moon Shines Down,” the Wise Brown book Bleck illustrated that will be released tomorrow, Nov. 4, by publisher Thomas Nelson Inc. She'll be reading the book and signing copies from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6, at the Harry W. Schwartz Book Shop in Mequon, 10976 N. Port Washington Road. Proceeds from the sale of the book during her appearance will go to the junior auxiliary of Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

“The Moon Shines Down” calls for blessings on all the world’s children as a glowing moon shines over each one. The story moves around the world, so Bleck chose her main character from one of the locations.

“I wanted kids to identify with a character who was traveling,” she said. “The book mentions Australia, so I went with a koala bear.”

Wise Brown always said that children’s stories should be told as children wanted to hear them, and she also encouraged the illustrators she chose to draw their pictures as if they were being seen through a child’s eyes.

Bleck worked with that concept in mind as she created her characters and scenes for “The Moon Shines Down.”

Being involved with bringing a Wise Brown book to life is a big honor for Bleck, whose 20-year career in the publishing industry includes many accolades – and missteps and failures, she’ll be the first to tell you. “It was a long process to get here. It didn’t just happen one day,” she said.

Bleck was formally trained as a graphic designer, and delved into the world of children’s books about seven years ago. She started working on an educational book about a little dog named Pepper while her own children – now 13-year-old David and 10-year-old Sarah – were very young. It took her five years to get to the point where she felt comfortable showing her Pepper pop-up book to a publisher, but when she did, and it was accepted, she decided to move fast.

“Before that first book was even done, I thought I better strike while the iron is hot and write more,” she said.

She ended up writing and illustrating four Pepper the Dog books, including “Pepper Picks a Pumpkin” and “Pepper’s Snow Day,” with the first ones published in 2006. The first book in the series, “Pepper Goes to School,” won a 2006 National Parenting Publication Award.

To maintain her workload, she does keep a schedule. When she’s working on a project, it’s 35 hours per week in her home office, “a designated room with a door,” she said with a laugh.

“My job is more of a passion,” she said. “I can make a living and work part time.”

And on this latest work, Bleck is hoping her passion for her work flows onto to the page and connects with Wise Brown’s words, all these decades after they were first written down on onion-skin paper.

“I hope she would be proud of what I did with the book,” Bleck said.