Seriously, Just Go to Sleep

February 13, 2012
Like Cee Lo Green, whose “F**k You!” went from obscenity-based soul to squeaky-clean pop, Mansbach and Cortés recast 2011’s Go the F**k to Sleep for wider audiences. The changes diminish the cathartic humor of the original: Go the F**k to Sleep acknowledged how a sleepless child can drive a parent to cursing, bitter tears, and self-reproach. This version (dedicated “to all the children... may your kids bring you as much joy as you’ve brought us”) speaks reasonably, if curtly, to children up late. Mansbach leaves his four-line stanzas in the same order, censoring punch lines without improving on clunky rhymes. “Hell no” becomes “No way,” and “I know you’re not thirsty. That’s bullshit. Stop lying” becomes “I know you’re not thirsty. You just had a drink./ Stop goofing around now, and sleep.” Cortés makes only minor substitutions in his surreal paintings of children, who snooze with sleepy tigers or restlessly occupy their cribs. Given infinitely better options like Dinosaur vs. Bedtime and Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! young and old ought to skip this unfunny, off-key revision. All ages.

March 15, 2012
The prepublication smash hit of 2011 Go the Fuck to Sleep gathers itself for a second run at number one on the bestseller list with a slightly repackaged version that features kid-safe language. The rhyming quatrains have been largely retained, with just the last line or two smoothed over for actual child audiences. "How come you can do all this other great shit / But you can't lie the fuck down and sleep?" becomes "You're incredibly cute, and super-duper smart, / But why's it so hard to just sleep?" after a little massage (which often casts scansion to the wind). The book's trim is larger than its original, and a few of the illustrations have been redone. In one scene, an African-American father tiptoes out of the room, as his cherubic child (maybe) nods off, where in the original both were Caucasian. But playing it straight just doesn't work for this effort. If anything made its progenitor funny, it was the juxtaposition of the parental cri de coeur against the worst excesses of the bedtime-book form. Syrupy imagery ("giant pangolins of Madagascar are snoozing") combined with equally gooey metaphorical illustrations in gleeful parody. Here, it's just another derivative piece of merchandising. The book's creators make sure readers know this: On the floor of the African-American child's bedroom, Go the Fuck to Sleep peeks out from underneath The Cat in the Hat and Goodnight Moon. Just as manipulative as the books it claims to mock. (Picture book. 2-6)

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February 1, 2012
Preschool A picture-book parody for sleep-deprived parents? Genius. A children's-book version of a picture-book parody for sleep-deprived parents? Inevitable. Going back to the well that so abundantly sprung for Go the Fuck to Sleep (2011), this sanitized version attempts to bring the target of the joke in on the joke. Of course, the very thing that touched a collective nerve and shot the book into the viral-meme stratospherethe impulse to unshackle your id and drop choice four-letter bombs on your precious bundle of joyhas been surgically removed in place of lines like, You're incredibly cute, and super-duper smart, / But why's it so hard to just sleep? The saccharine-sweet artwork is largely the same, though Cort's throws in a few extra kid-friendly teddy bears here and knowing winks there (hey, there's Samuel L. Jackson!). It's hard not to be at least a little bit charmed all over again, so maybe it's best to just think of this book as a family-friendly victory lap for a feel-good, potty-mouthed publishing sensation. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Even if this book only captures a fraction of the attention its forebear garnered, there's reason enough to expect demand.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2012
The adult children's book parody [cf2]Go the Fuck to Sleep[cf1] is here expurgated of its most notorious word and thus its point. The parental hectoring ("Stop messing with me, please, and sleep") remains, though, so the not-terrible paintings of human and animal sleepytime scenes now seem unduly menacing. Neither parent nor child will be entertained by this knockoff.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)