Book Review :: Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach

Title: Go the F**k to Sleep
Author: Adam Mansbach
Illustrator: Ricardo Cortes
Genre: Adult fiction

Publisher: Open Road Media
Imprint: Akashic Books
Publication Date: June 14, 2011
Source: Received electronically from publisher via NetGalley

Did I like the cover?: I thought it was okay. It was a creative use of the moon in the title though.

First lines: The cats nestle close to their kittens, The lambs have laid down with sheep. You're cozy and warm in your bed, my dear. Please go the f**k to sleep.

This book reminds me of: Typical bedtime stories for children except this is NOT FOR KIDS.

The main character reminds me of: my husband and I because we are new parents with a young baby ourselves and we are in need of more sleep. Please?

Summary from Goodreads:
Go the F**k to Sleep is a bedtime book for parents who live in the real world, where a few snoozing kitties and cutesy rhymes don't always send a toddler sailing blissfully off to dreamland. Profane, affectionate, and radically honest, California Book Award-winning author Adam Mansbach's verses perfectly capture the familiar—and unspoken—tribulations of putting your little angel down for the night. In the process, they open up a conversation about parenting, granting us permission to admit our frustrations, and laugh at their absurdity.
With illustrations by Ricardo Cortes, Go the F**k to Sleep is beautiful, subversive, and pants-wettingly funny—a book for parents new, old, and expectant. You probably should not read it to your children.
Review:
My husband and I are new parents of a 10-month old who STILL does not sleep through the night. (We're working on it.) Out of everything, I think the single most-mystifying thing about having your own baby is sleep. Everyone warns you about it when you become a parent, but you are never really fully prepared for the first couple of months of parenthood when your world is so much fuller because of the new baby in your life, but also so insanely overwhelming because you are so sleep-deprived. I chose to request and review this book because I thought it'd give me a good laugh about those crazy nights we've had where our baby girl would NOT sleep and I wholehearted started believing that she (and I) would never go back to sleep EVER AGAIN.

The story reads a lot like a bedtime story because of the illustrations and poetic verses, but please do not confuse it with an actual bedtime story that you can read with your little ones. However, it would make a great gift to share with parents - especially new ones.

I think the writing could have been a little sharper. Maybe because I've read so many Dr. Seuss books lately, but I was expecting a little more of a rhythmic bounce to the story a la Seuss-ical fashion.

I personally don't use curse words in my life and don't really care to hear it used when I'm around, so I didn't care much for the profanity in the book. It was funny the first couple times around. After the first few pages, it got a little old for me. And it made me a little uncomfortable that this parent was so free with them around his kid or when thinking about his kid. You might think that makes me a prude and old-fashioned and I know the author was using it more for emphasis than any other thing, but in my opinion, I think the book would have been just as enjoyable and have the same effect without all of the curse words on every single page.

Overall:
That being said, I did really enjoy the book. I thought it greatly captured the frustration and every day (and night!) reality that parents face when it comes to the issue of sleep (or lack thereof) with babies and young ones. It was real, raw and honest and as a new parent, wishing of the day when my daughter will sleep through the night every night, it was very entertaining to read.

Rating:
4 out of 5 stars

This is book #16 of the year. I am participating in the 2011 Goodreads Reading Challenge. My goal is to read 50 books this year.