From the bedside table to the big screen: Best-selling 'children's book for adults' Go The F*** To Sleep to become a movie

By Margot Peppers


Go The F*** To Sleep - the parody bedtime story, written by Adam Mansbach, about a father's frustration as he tries to put his reluctant daughter to bed - is getting a film adaptation.

Fox 2000 announced plans to turn the 32-page picture book into a movie with the help of writers Ken Marino and Erica Oyama, the husband-wife team who most recently wrote comedy webseries Burning Love.

No plot details have been revealed, but Jezebel has speculated that it might follow a similar storyline to What To Expect When You're Expecting, which was adapted for the big screen last year.

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Go The F*** To Sleep

Coming soon: Go The F*** To Sleep, the best-selling profane bedtime story written by Adam Mansbach in 2011, will be adapted to film, Fox 2000 has announced

Go The F*** To Sleep was an overnight hit, especially among parents who could relate to the frustrating ruses featured in the book which many children use to hold off bedtime.


But the announcement that it will be adapted into a film comes as a surprise to some, who assert that the simple picture book does not have enough of a plot to warrant an entire movie.

Adam Mansbach

Voicing his frustration: The author originally posted the story as a Facebook rant, and his friends convinced him to turn it into a book

One skeptical commenter on Jezebel wrote: 'This is a joke that consists of exactly one punchline repeated for 32 pages.'

The critic continued: 'Hollywood is so out of ideas they're one step away from turning a funny tweet into its own movie.'

But Madeleine Davies, who wrote the Jezebel article, surmised that the storyline might be similar to parenthood comedy What To Expect When Your Expecting, another seemingly plotless book which was adapted to film in 2012.

While that particular book-turned-movie did not enjoy box office success, Ms Davies notes that Mr Marino and Ms Oyama, the writers behind the new film, are a 'promising detail'.

Mr Mansbach's storybook began as a Facebook rant about the trials of putting his two-year-old daughter Vivien to bed.

But his friends were so amused by his words that they convinced him to turn them into a book.

Go The F*** To Sleep is an illustrated storybook written in poem form, which parodies the books parents read to their children at bedtime.

It details the frustrating excuses children make to delay sleep such as requests for one more story or a glass of water.

Each stanza ends with the refrain: 'Please go the f*** to sleep.'


The cats nestle close to their kittens.

The lambs have laid down with the sheep.

You're cozy and warm in your bed, my dear.

Please go the f*** to sleep.

The book enjoyed critical acclaim and became an internet sensation when actor Samuel L. Jackson recorded his own hilarious reading.

In 2011, the author said on the Today show: 'Hopefully, the book is very reflective of what we all feel putting our kids to bed.

'We all love our kids - it’s not like we stop loving our kids,' he added. 'But as the minutes tick by, we'll do anything to get out of that room.'

The date for the movie's release has not yet been revealed.