Review - Goodnight '70s

Goodnight '70s
by Peter Stein
illustrated by Alyssa Bermudez
Date: 2019
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Reading level: A
Book type: picture book non-fiction
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

Say goodnight to long hair and beanbag chairs, Kung Fu champs and lava lamps, Pop Rocks and your David Cassidy lunchbox—this playful Goodnight Moon parody is a retro rhyming ride back to the seventies!

Illustrated and packaged à la Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon, Goodnight '70s turns the classic children’s book into a baby boomer’s ode to the far out 1970s. It’s the perfect gift for anyone nostalgic for the good old days of bell-bottoms, disco balls, and 8-track tapes.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Picture books for adults: they can be tricky to get right. This one tried, but I don't think it quite gets there. The audience that this will appeal to is going to be quite limited, and it's definitely not for kids. Much like Go the F**k to Sleep, this is a very adult book masquerading as something that will appeal to younger readers.

Look, I get most of the references, even though only I experienced the tail end of the decade in question. But I really question why someone felt the need to make a book like this. As a parody of Goodnight Moon? There are better ones out there (try Goodnight iPad for a really strong one that's been updated for today's audience). As an excuse to draw a streaker and Richard Nixon on the same page? Perhaps. The thing is, unless you were a teenager or young adult in the 1970s, you're probably not going to get much out of this.

The illustrations are passable, but the text is kind of clunky and I don't know why the first letter of every line had to be capitalized, even though it was in the middle of a sentence. (Was the original Goodnight Moon like this? I don't even remember.)

This might work if there were a whole series of these books celebrating the quirks of the individual decades. But since it seems to be a standalone title--and because of the mature subject matter--it's going to have limited appeal.

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing a digital ARC.

Premise: 3/5
Meter: 2/5
Writing: 2/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.29 out of 5