Go the Fuck to Sleep

Adam Mansbach’s Go the Fuck to Sleep is the most controversial picture book on the shelves. Exhausted by his own daughter Vivien’s tedious two-hour bedtime routine, Adam penned a would-be bedtime book that speaks the mind of beleaguered parents everywhere and the difficulties of getting your child to ‘Go the Fuck to Sleep.’– “In Touch Weekly”By any definition, the subversive Go the Fuck to Sleep–in which a desperate father cajoles his child to please, please, slip off into dreamland–is a real game changer; it lets frazzled parents vicariously enjoy chastising their stubborn offspring with well-placed profanity while never uttering a harsh word aloud.– “Miami Herald”The bracing language may be earning it headlines, but its true appeal–and, I suspect, the reason it has caught on with the toddler-terrorised masses–lies in its unapologetic acknowledgment that early parenthood is a struggle, a state defined as often by frustration as delight. For the exhausted parent, nudged to the brink of sanity by lack of sleep, Go the Fuck to Sleep is more than a reason to snigger–it’s a gesture of compassion.– “Daily Telegraph (UK)”

Adam Mansbach’s novels include The End of the Jews, winner of the California Book Award, and the best-selling Angry Black White Boy, a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2005. His fiction and essays have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the Believer, Granta, the Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. He was the 2010-2011 New Voices Professor of Fiction at Rutgers University. His daughter, Vivien, was his inspiration for Go the F** to Sleep*.

Ricardo Cortes has illustrated books about marijuana (It’s Just a Plant), electricity, the Jamaican bobsled team, Chinese food, and A Secret History of Coffee, Coca & Cola. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, the Village Voice, the San Francisco Chronicle, and on the O’Reilly Factor and CNN. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.