'Goodnight Moon' goes smoke free

NEW YORK, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- The publishers of Margaret Wise Brown's 60-year-old children's classic "Goodnight Moon" have created a firestorm by making the little book smoke free.

The son of illustrator Clement Hurd, Thacher Hurd, told The New York Times he was pressured by HarperCollins to let the publisher digitally alter the picture of his father in a newly revised edition of the book, removing a cigarette from his hand.

The doctored photo has come under fire from a group of children's booksellers and one has even mounted a campaign to have the original picture restored.

HarperCollins Children's Books Editor Kate Jackson said it was nothing more than a "quick fix" to what was viewed as a "potentially a harmful message to very young kids."

Hurd said the doctored photo of his dad with nothing but air between his extended fingers looks "slightly absurd to me," adding Brown and his father "would be thoroughly amused by this."

"Goodnight Moon" celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2007.