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“Go the F**k to Sleep”: Destined to Become a Bestselling Book?

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

Several  weeks ago, I read some interesting news about a “not yet published” picture book titled Go the F**k to Sleep. The book had begun climbing Amazon’s best-seller list on the strength of preorders that people had placed. According to an article in The New York Times, neither the book’s author Adam Mansbach nor his publisher could account for the “phenomenon.” Galleys of the book had not been distributed. The only people to have seen the work were, purportedly, “a handful of booksellers who received a PDF via e-mail.”

It appears the PDF of Go the F**k to Sleep went viral. Some of the booksellers who received the PDF of the book must have forwarded it to other people…who probably forwarded it to still more people.

Go the F**k to Sleep is a picture book that is not intended for reading to children. It was written for weary parents who lose patience when their “little ones” don’t want to go to bed.

It seems the book has become all the rage. Even Rachel Maddow designated Go the F**k to Sleep a “Best New Thing in the World” on one of her recent shows on MSNBC. Touré, a writer and cultural critic who is the father of two young children, called it an “awesome” book in an appearance on the Dylan Ratigan Show. And actor Samuel L. Jackson recorded an audio-book narration for it. Jackson said that there were times in the past when he was exasperated when his young daughter wouldn’t fall asleep and told her to “go the f**k to sleep.” Nice way to speak to a young child, don’t you think?

Here’s how the text of the book begins:

The cats nestle close to their kittens now.
The lambs have laid down with the sheep.
You’re cozy and warm in your bed, my dear
Please go the fuck to sleep.

Maybe I’m an old fuddy duddy. My opinion of the book is different from that of Maddow and Touré. In my opinion, Go the F**k to Sleep is not awesome. It’s not a “best new thing in the world.” While I laughed when I first heard about the book, I found the rhyming text tiresome after the first couple of pages. I got the joke. I thought it wore thin quickly.

What I wonder about is how many mothers-to-be and parents of newborns will receive this book as a gift. I also wonder how many parents may now think it’s cool to tell their wee ones who don’t feel like going to bed to “go the f**k to sleep.”

Listen to Samuel l. Jackson’s reading of the book and let me know what your opinion of it is.

I’d like to suggest some fine picture books to read to young children at bedtime:

SOURCES
The Mystery of “Go the F to Sleep” Solved (The New Yorker)

Go the Fuck to Sleep: a storybook for exhausted parents (Boing Boing)

‘Go the F— to Sleep’: The Case of the Viral PDF (The Bay Citizen)

A Whim, A Book, And, Wow! (New York Times)

60 thoughts on ““Go the F**k to Sleep”: Destined to Become a Bestselling Book?”

  1. Patric,

    Karen Spears Zacharias wrote a critical piece on the book for CNN–and received a lot of criticsm for it.

    *****
    “Go the F*** to Sleep” not funny
    http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-27/opinion/zacharias.kid.book_1_bedtime-sleep-storybooks?_s=PM:OPINION

    Excerpt from the end of the article:

    Author Adam Mansbach is undoubtedly the kind of father who heaps love, affection and attention upon his daughter. (He reportedly had the idea to write the book because of his exasperation with her at bedtime.) But sadly, his book accurately portrays the hostile environment in which too many children grow up.

    For far too many kids, the obscenities found in Mansbach’s book are a common, everyday household language. Swearing is how parents across the social, educational and economic strata express their disappointments or anxieties, their frustrations and outright anger at their children. Sometimes the biggest bully in the neighborhood lives in the same house you do. Sometimes it’s your parent.

    Perhaps the reason Mansbach’s book resonates isn’t so much because of the humor, but because of the truth behind it.

    The violent language of “Go the F*** to Sleep” is not the least bit funny, when one considers how many neglected children fall asleep each night praying for a parent who’d care enough to hold them, nurture them and read to them.

    You know, like all those parents depicted in all those beautifully illustrated storybooks.

  2. My take is that the crapification of society is an ugly thing to behold.

    Anyone naive enough to think mere “words” don’t have a powerful impact on the human mind – and human interaction – might do well to take a 20-minute peak at a neurolinguistics overview. The “N” word ain’t the “N” word for no reason. In the human brain, “words” aren’t words at all. They are etchings, and they are permanent.

    It matters not a whit who the target audience is – anything published becomes a shotgun shell as soon as it leaves the barrel. Kids were reading this book on their I-pods as the ink dried on the manuscript.

    And when it comes to the minds of kids, well, we all know what garbage in, garbage out, means.

  3. Well, I should have been doing something else, but I just found it on eBay. Fifty bucks for the original 1952 edition, the same one I had as a child. Can’t wait to get my hands on it.

  4. Two favorites… from way-back-when:

    Pantaloni by Bettina

    The Boy Who Drew Cats — a Japanese fairy tale (My recollection of the title is “The Boy Who Painted Cats”, but not according to Google and Wikipedia…)

  5. Two favorites… from way-back-when:

    Pantaloni by Bettina

    The Boy Who Drew Cats a Japanese fairy tale (My recollection of the title is “The Boy Who Painted Cats”, but not according to Google and Wikipedia…)

  6. Thanks, Elaine. I see it was actually a Rand McNally Elf Book. I have been trying to locate a copy for several years without success. If it were reissued, I’m certain it would be a best seller.

  9. My own favorite book from childhood is “The Little Mailman of Bayberry Lane.” It’s a Little Golden Book no longer in publication. A beautifully illustrated and touching story about caring for each other. -Mike Appleton

    Sounds like a very sweet book from a bygone era… It would be nice to see it back on the shelves…

  10. I read my daughter Going Rogue every night. I admit I have to hide the cover-she states that the picture is “Too Scary”. But it makes her feel that she can do anything she tells me “Really Daddy? You mean I could write a book that would be better than this one?” To which I always reply, “Yes dear, ANYONE could.”

  11. driving in my car I caught a brief clip of an interview on Christian Radio of some guy claiming that this book was a pretty much a total rip off in content & illustrations of their own book that they’d worked so hard on, just that they made the presentation a bit coarser (the f-word title)

  12. Samuel L. Jackson has no morals or boundaries so consider the source. I am not surprised that a book like this is getting the attention it is getting. It goes to show just how trivial our society has become. Llook at comedy. Back in the day comediennes were funny. Now, most relay on cussing or cuss words as punchlines. Pathetic.

  13. Elaine:

    I previewed the book on my Kindle while visiting my two and a half year old grandson last week. The premise is funny, but I agree the joke begins to grate rather quickly.

    My own favorite book from childhood is “The Little Mailman of Bayberry Lane.” It’s a Little Golden Book no longer in publication. A beautifully illustrated and touching story about caring for each other.

  14. Jason,

    “I can picture the oversensitives in this thread calling CPS and telling them that I’ve hooked my baby on smack.”

    Are those of us who disagree with your opinion of the book “oversensitive?” I’ll speak for myself. I don’t believe I am. I happen to think the book isn’t all that funny. I do think the book was a crude way of getting a laugh and making a lot of money for the author and the publisher.

  15. “I can picture the oversensitives in this thread calling CPS and telling them that I’ve hooked my baby on smack.”

    Jason,

    I’ve worked in CPS and while the gallows humor irony you used was funny, I hope you knew the physician well. You wouldn’t believe the lack of humor some possess. I well know since I ran into many a similar situation where my workers had to investigate some very silly physician’s allegations.

    Re: the book, my reaction to it is not one of outrage, but simply that I feel no particular humor in its’ premise. I wouldn’t ban it, nor even go very far to denounce it, I simply don’t like the concept and its implications. Personally,
    I find it as annoying as I find Mother-In-Law jokes.

  17. Elaine M-

    “When some parents get frustrated, they get angry and yell or swear at their children.”

    Yes they do. And this book has nothing to do with that. This book will not encourage bad parenting nor does it advocate it. Bad parents aren’t made from novelty picture books.

    Mike Spindell-

    “In your own experience is your answer why FFLEO and myself don’t find the book’s premise funny. Using fuck in this context is an expression of anger.”

    Anger directed not at the non-existent child in a picture book that is joking about a universal experience among new parents. It’s not advocating child abuse, it’s not making light of child abuse. The joke is *entirely* centered on exasperation.

    “To tell someone to shut the fuck up could well be fighting words.”

    The book isn’t a parenting manual. It’s a freaking joke.

    “I can remember the very infrequent anger I might have at their actions, but never at them. Certainly never at them for doing what kids do.”

    Which I already said. The book isn’t about being angry at kids since they are blameless in this situation. It’s about tired parents expressing exhaustion in a completely over the top manner in a book.

    Perhaps I just have too warped a sense of humor. Our baby was about to get a hepatitis vaccine and as the doctor was walking out to get the syringe, I told her that it was a good thing because my kid had been hitting the heroin pretty hard.

    I do not give heroin to my kid. I do not think heroin addiction is funny (a dead relative will do that to you). The joke was in the ridiculous notion of a newborn doing heroin. Even the doctor laughed (after shaking her head first). I can picture the oversensitives in this thread calling CPS and telling them that I’ve hooked my baby on smack.

    I’ll go ahead and tap out now, I think we’re going in circles.

  18. MeMe:

    I never was. I am more like a fart in a perfume factory. Or maybe I am perfume in a hog pen. I suppose it depends on your point of view.

  19. Roco Boco,

    You did not say that you were not addressing me. Are you and kd still the belle of the ball?

  20. MeMe:

    I was not addressing you, I was making a point about why a child might not want to go to sleep.

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