Cover Image: Goodnight '70s

Goodnight '70s

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Member Reviews

This parody of Good Night Moon is groovy baby! There are a few passages that might not be as child appropriate if you are a conservative, but it is a lot of fun. The author does a great job picking out things to highlight, such as streaking, lunch boxes, and pong. A great book to pull when you are tired from all the kung foo fighting.

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I like the idea of this book and the items mentioned, I'm just confused as to who the target audience is. I'm not sure people that grew up in the 70s would want to read something that runs along the same lines as Goodnight Moon, but kids would not understand what is being talked about. That's the one issue I feel this book faces, trying to find the right audience.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Author: Peter Stein
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Publication Date: 07 May 2019

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'Goodnight '70s' by Peter Stein with illustrations by Alyssa Bermudez is a satire for adults of a popular childrens books.

It's bedtime for a bunch of people dressed in 1970s clothing, so we have to say good night to the various objects and people in the room. There is a disco ball and a lava lamp. There is a lunchbox featuring a teen idol of the time. There are rainbow colors and outlandish clothing and hair.

The jokes are all based on stereotypes of the decade (even though none of the hippies I knew would have anything to do with disco balls). The illustrations are soft and colorful, but I didn't like the use of photos. The good news is that it rhymes. It's just not all that good.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

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Goodnight 70s is an adult book patterned after the children’s book Goodnight Moon. I certainly can relate to the 70s and enjoyed all the references to that time period. I actually laughed out loud recalling the 70s as I read it. This book will definitely appeal to anyone who experienced the 70s.

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While the premise of this book was intriguing, the execution did not make for a rewarding experience. The illustrations were at times clever, but not particularly well done. The "story line" was stereotypical, and may disappoint the small audience who were attracted to it by the theme. But maybe I'm wrong.

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Goodnight '70s from Peter Stein is an adult parody of a children's classic, Goodnight Moon. It is cute and will appeal to many people who remember the '70s, even if a bit hazy.

I bumped my rating up a bit because people were rating and reviewing negatively based on it not being a very good children's book. This isn't a children's book, that is like criticizing a vegan cookbook for not telling me when to plant my seeds. It is a cookbook, not a gardening book. Likewise, this is an adult's comic book, not a children's, so to criticize it for being a poor example of what it never set out to be is asinine at best.

Having defended the book on that basis, it was, for me, a little uneven. Some of the verses flowed fairly well while others seemed forced and didn't roll off the tongue very well. Since this is more of a fun nostalgic book for baby boomers than either a serious attempt at verse or a children's book, I can forgive the flow a bit. The nostalgia element is there and that is why people will want to read/look at this book.

I would recommend this for people who like tongue-in-cheek nostalgia trips. I can imagine this being given as a gift more often than someone buying it for themselves. It is so short that the buyer will likely read the book in the store (for those who still use physical stores) then think about a friend or relative that would like it and get it for them.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

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While the author certainly nailed it in their quest to cram as much 70’s nostalgia into 32 pages as possible, I can’t say this one stood out more than any other children’s book parody I can recall. While I understood all the references, I found the text to be a bit ... clunky. Although art style wasn’t for me, I did enjoy carefully inspecting the illustrations for some additional references to the decade not included in the rhymes. It was just okay and not something I would read again.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Goodnight Moon was one of my favorite books as a child, this version is adorable and even at times hilarious! Adorable book for all ages to enjoy

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This book was OK, but nothing special.

Obviously it was a nod to Goodnight Moon, but differed in the rhyme scheme, the art style, and the overall tone. Geared towards adults; it did have a couple witty parts, like the streaker and Nixon. I do agree that even with five- to seven-digit dialing rotary phones took forever to call someone.

And seriously... everyone had Pong hooked up to their TV set, but very few had the actual *arcade machine* in their house.

I do wonder who the intended audience is for this book. Most people with any real memories of the decade are pushing 50 or above.

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I was really looking forward to this book, but did not enjoy it at all. I got all of the 70's references, but the book overall was a disappointment.

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Since I spent my young adult years in the "70s, I had high hopes for a nostalgic journey in this parody of the popular Goodnight Moon book. However, I found the rhyming to be awkward. The text simply didn't flow smoothly for me. I had to go through the book a second time in order to fully appreciate all the "70s elements captured in the illustrations. The book will probably hold the most appeal for those baby boomers who came of age in the era of bell bottoms, disco balls and everything avocado green. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to preview Goodnight '70s.

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I really did not enjoy this book. I initially downloaded because I thought it was going to be at least a little interesting but I found the whole thing even down to the art to just be really bland and boring.

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It..........will hold appeal to a certain, small, audience. It's different, that's for sure! If there was a book dedicated to each decade, maybe as part of a series, it might hold more appeal in an educational sense (though some language would need to be edited). As a singlet, however, I'm not sold. Two stars for uniqueness.

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Groovy book, dude. This book was far out. Looking forward to sharing this with my own children someday.

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A cute and nostalgic book. I liked the illustrations and it made me smile.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

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This parody of Goodnight Moon has plenty of color, plenty of nostalgia, but not much in the way of plot. You have tropes of '70s with Pong, David Cassidy, waterbeds, lava lamps, pet rocks, and bell bottoms making an appearance along with Richard Nixon and the personification of a Ray Stevens song - you know the one! The tale is fine once, but rereading often would descend into too many flashbacks.

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to review this title.

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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.

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Goodnight ‘70s is a board book in the style of Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. The text is by Peter Stein and the illustrations are by Alyssa Bermudez. For those who lived through the nineteen seventies, everything they will remember (fondly or less so) about that era is there: disco balls, clogs and platform shoes, bell-bottom trousers, bean bags, the eight-track sound system, head bands, Pong, rotary dial telephones, pet rocks, tube socks and celebrity lunch boxes, streaking, Nixon, The Brady Bunch, Kung Fu Fighting, lava lamps, the yellow smiley-face, burnt orange everything, and avocado green everything else.

It pays to examine each page carefully so you don’t miss the afro combs, kidney-shaped coffee tables, fringed suede jackets, shaped sunglasses, loud print linens, psychedelic prints, long loose hairstyles for both sexes, water beds, plastic flowers, bead curtains and fluffy rugs. There’s an attempt at rhyme and the illustrations are very much in keeping with the era. But this is definitely not a book for children, except those of the late sixties and early seventies. Nostalgia for readers of a certain vintage.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing.

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Some baby boomers may find this nostalgic. The groovy (a word missing from a book trying to capture the ambience of an era) illustrations and hippie=style font harken back to the days of frolicking flower children. The rhymes are predictable but on occasion seem forced (righteous teens?). That said, here is a fun-t0-read-once book for an aging generation.

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Apologies I can only read and review mobi or pdf to convert to mobi formats.
Had I know this was a download only book I would not have requested it.
It's a shame it isn't available in mobi format as I think it is a book I would have really enjoyed being born in 1971.
I hope when its released its available as an ebook as I would still love to read this. The fact it is in rhyme just intrigues me further.

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