The timeless tradition of lulling a child to sleep with a soothing story doesn’t always have the desired results, a truth lampooned in Adam Mansbach’s faux bedtime tale, Go the F**ck to Sleep. This tongue-in-cheek picture book clearly speaks to bleary-eyed parents of wakeful wee ones: sales have topped two million copies worldwide since the book’s 2011 release by Akashic Books. But more straight-laced advice is in the offing.
Parents all-too-familiar with the frustration accompanying their children’s refusal to fall under the soporific spell of Goodnight Moon will appreciate three recent picture books that tackle the issue strategically and organically, incorporating sleep-inducing elements into the stories themselves: The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep by Carl-Johan Forssén Ehrlin (Crown), Can You Yawn Like a Fawn? by Monica Sweeney with Lauren Yelvington (St. Martin’s Castle Point), and Let’s Go to Sleep by Maisie Reade (Little, Brown).
The idea for writing a bedtime story offering positive-reinforcement techniques to promote relaxation came to Ehrlin serendipitously. “I still don’t know why I got the idea of helping children go to sleep – it just popped up into my head one day,” recalled the author, a Swedish behavioral scientist, life coach, and communications professor. “I always like to help people, so perhaps it was just the next step, a new way of using my knowledge to help.”
After writing a draft of The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep (which contains prompts for emphasizing or speaking words calmly, yawning, and inserting a child’s name) Ehrlin consulted with a local children’s storyteller, who offered him some advice before he tested the bedtime tale on students at two preschools, and on children of friends. When he received overwhelmingly positive feedback, Ehrlin said, “I made the final decision to publish my book.”
In 2011 the author self-published Rabbit, with pictures by Irina Maununen, in Sweden, selling copies at seminars he conducted; word-of-mouth enthusiasm catapulted the book onto bestseller status. That success inspired Ehrlin to have the title translated into several other languages, including English, to reach a broader audience, and in 2014 he self-published the translated editions through Amazon’s CreateSpace.
The book soared in Amazon’s rankings in the U.S. and the U.K., not surprisingly catching the attention of trade publishers, including the children’s divisions of Random House U.S. and Penguin Random House U.K., which together negotiated a seven-figure deal for world English rights to Rabbit (and two future stand-alone titles by Ehrlin) last August.
Before the book’s acquisition, Emily Easton, executive editor of Crown Books for Young Readers, recalled that she and her colleagues had been keeping their eyes on the self-published edition of Rabbit as it climbed Amazon’s bestseller list. “We realized that something was happening there, and when we actually read the book aloud, we found it strangely effective,” she said. “In fact, listening to the story, I was fighting not to fall asleep!”
Easton had little time to sleep immediately after the deal for the book was sealed, given the lightning-quick turnaround time from the contract signing in late August to Rabbit’s October 2 on-sale date. “We had two days to convert the files, copyedit, and Americanize the text,” she said. “It was the wildest whirlwind I’d ever experienced!”.
The Power of a Yawn
Rabbit’s impressive self-published track record was not lost on others in the industry, including Holly Schmidt, co-owner (with Allan Penn) of Hollan Publishing in Beverley, Mass. Established in 2006, the company focuses on “conceptual agenting,” a mash-up of a literary agency and a traditional book packager.
The premise of Ehrlin’s book struck a personal chord with Schmidt and her publishing partner, who recall, perhaps not entirely fondly, their own families’ bedtime trials. “Allan and I discussed how we both remember well those days of desperately trying to get our children to sleep,” she said. “And other parents obviously identify with that desperation as well – as evidenced by the success of Go the F**ck to Sleep.”
After Schmidt brainstormed ideas with her colleagues at Hollan, associate editor Monica Sweeney was tapped to pen the story that became Can You Yawn Like a Fawn?, a rhyming read-aloud that spotlights baby animals and their parents at nighttime, snuggling together and yawning – which young listeners are encouraged to do as well.
Schmidt lined up Laura Watkins to illustrate the book and sold the project to Bruce Lubin at St. Martin’s Castle Point, which released the title in February. A burst on its cover labels it A Help-Your-Child-to-Sleep Book, which the publisher hopes to build as a series.
Sweeney wrote the story in collaboration with pediatric sleep consultant Lauren Yelvington, whose opening note offers parents pointers for setting a restful scene and reading tips “to make bedtime reading a peaceful and positive way to get your child to sleep.” The narrative, Sweeney explained, “unfolded organically as we were discussing possible ways of devising a story that was creative and soothing – for both parents and children. We liked the idea of repetitive yawning – after all, they do say that yawning is contagious!”
It’s All in the Breathing
Also inspired by the Rabbit phenomenon, Andrea Spooner, v-p and editorial director of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, acted quickly, along with her team, to create Let’s Go to Sleep: A Story with 5 Steps to Help Ease Your Child to Sleep (Apr.), the first release in the Read Me to Sleep series. “When any major success ripples through the publishing world, we – and other publishers – obviously ask ourselves why the book is having such success, and wonder if there is any way to tap into that consumer interest,” said Spooner. “Ehrlin’s book received so much attention, it is clear that parents are craving a magical solution to make bedtime easier in this age of high stimulation, high anxiety, and short attention spans.”
Written in-house under the pseudonym of Maisie Reade, the book features illustrations by Laura Huliska-Beith, and opens with five reading tips. Additional advice (including breathing techniques) is offered throughout the story, which has color-coded text indicating when to use a hushed voice or draw out the primary vowel sound, or personalize the story for a child.
Let’s Go to Sleep’s emphasis on deep breathing, Spooner said, is an angle that she and her colleagues believe many parents will connect with. “There is a huge population of adults – and a growing number of children – practicing yoga today,” she noted. “And we realized that including slow breathing would make the read-aloud experience a bit longer. Instead of zipping through a stack of short picture books in five minutes – and it’s very unlikely that a child will fall asleep in just five minutes – it makes much more sense to read a story that allows a parent and child to wind down together and relax on a deeper physical and mental level. That makes it so much easier for a child’s mind to loosen up and drift off.”
Less relaxing was Little, Brown’s speedy turnaround time for the book, which Spooner estimates was less than three months from brainstorming ideas to delivering the book to the printer. She noted that early feedback from accounts has been very positive. “Booksellers say that there is customer interest in books on this subject, and if something is working, it’s great to have alternatives to offer. People respond to stories and art differently, and it appears that there is room for several books in this genre – at least while the topic is hot.”
And the subject is hot enough to have spawned a parody of The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep. Written by “Zeldar the Great with help from Diana Holquist and Christopher Eliopoulos,” The Rabbit Who Wants to Go to Harvard: A New Way of Getting Children to Stop Sleeping and Start Achieving was released by Dial in February. Odds are that parents will opt for sleepiness over sleeplessness – at least until SATs appear on the horizon.
The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep: A New Way of Getting Children to Sleep by Carl-Johan Forssén Ehrlin, illus. by Irina Maununen. Crown, $15.99 Oct. 2015 ISBN 978-0-399-554134-1
Can You Yawn Like a Fawn? by Monica Sweeney with Lauren Yelvington, illus. by Laura Watkins. St. Martin’s Castle Point, $15.99 Feb. ISBN 978-1-250-10416-8
Let’s Go to Sleep: A Story with 5 Steps to Help Ease Your Child to Sleep by Maisie Reade, illus. by Laura Huliska-Beith. Little, Brown, $14.99 Apr. ISBN 978-0-316-33655-8
