Read of the Week: The Boy Who Fell Asleep by Mick Jackson

Over the summer we were delighted to welcome a few students along to our Calderstones HQ on work experience. While they were here, of course we asked them about their favourite reads and they were good enough to share them for our Read of the Week series - this week, Monica recommends The Boy Who Fell Asleep from Mick Jackson's Ten Sorry Tales collection.

Once upon a time, there was a boy who fell asleep everywhere he went. He would stare out his classroom window and struggled to concentrate on his studies. This angered his teacher who even threw a chalk at him for not paying attention.

This story also talks about the boy’s wanderings which seem to lead him to unconsciousness. He falls asleep during a geography trip and even drifts off while his teacher points to the map of the world and talks about faraway places.

His parents don't spend much time with him because they're so busy but I love the fact that the boy’s mother supports him in the beginning of the story, “his mother had to sit him up and splash his face with cold water before getting any sense out of him”, and when the boy falls asleep for a long time, it causes his parents a lot of distress. This shows that the parents love their son and wouldn’t let him go through this situations without them not putting themselves in his shoes. This story makes you realise that being a parent is not easy because you will go through some situations which you might not like but you will have to face it for the sake of your children.

In conclusion, the boy who feel asleep is a delightful story, transforming an absolutely horrifying situation and making it fixed for human beings. This situation is part of human nature and it shows the way that parents adapt to overcome these problems. However, the boy couldn’t cope with these situations anymore so he gave up on everything. This is a story which really tells a lots about human’s choice and what it could cause at the end of our decisions.

“After a couple of terms he gave up on the whole idea of schooling and got a job on a nearby farm. He worked there most of his life and lived to a grand old age, but It wouldn’t be true to say he was happy.”

Mick Jackson's Ten Sorry Tales has also been a Reader Recommended Read in the past - if you like the sound of exploring short stories such as these, why not come along to a Shared Reading group?

Find a group near you.