Do you remember an old episode of Sex and the City where Carrie Bradshaw, desperate to meet Big’s ex-wife, meets with her to plug a book concept? Unfortunately, during her meeting, she discovers that Big’s ex-wife is a children’s book publisher. So she quickly makes up a story about a girl with magic cigarettes that can take her anywhere she wants to go. And the ex-wife says, “A picture book for ADULTS?! I LOVE it!”

Barbara, Mr. Big’s Ex-Wife: I didn’t know you were into children’s books.
Carrie: Well, who doesn’t love children’s books?
Carrie: [in her head] Five minutes of bodice-ripping material out the window. So, I did what any writer would do… I pulled an idea out of my ass.
Carrie: Well, my story’s about a little girl… named Cathy. Little Cathy.
Barbara, Mr. Big’s Ex-Wife: And what makes Little Cathy special?
Carrie: Well, um, she has these magic…
[looks at cigarettes in her purse]
Carrie: …cigarettes.
Barbara, Mr. Big’s Ex-Wife: She has magic cigarettes?
Carrie: Yes, “Little Cathy and Her Magic Cigarettes”. And whenever she lights up, she can go anywhere in the whole wide world. Like Arabia or New Jersey! Of course that’s going to be worked out.
Barbara, Mr. Big’s Ex-Wife: You want to write a children’s book about smoking?
Carrie: Yes, it’s a children’s book for adults.

Go the F**K to Sleep turns out to this imagined picture book for adults by Newton’s own Adam Mansbach and illustrated by Richardo Cortés. Sleep deprived adults with young children, that is. The language was … suggestive, to say the least.

Now there’s a clean version. A “G” rated version that you can actually read aloud to your kids…

Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortés reunite with Seriously, Just Go to Sleep, inviting the children themselves in on the joke. As parents know, kids are well aware of how difficult they can be at bedtime. With Cortés’s updated illustrations (including a cameo appearance by Samuel L. Jackson, who narrated the audio book version of Go the F*** to Sleep) and Mansbach’s new child-appropriate narrative, the book allows kids to recognize their tactics, giggle at their own mischievousness, and empathize with their parents’ struggles — a perspective most children’s books don’t capture. Most importantly, it provides a common ground for children and their parents to talk about one of the most stressful aspects of parenting.

Seriously, Just Go To Sleep, a more child-friendly version of the international bestseller and worldwide phenomenon Go the F**k to Sleep, is now available as an ebook from Akashic Books and Open Road Integrated Media.

Kindle version

To view any book more closely at Amazon, please click on image of book.