WHILE YOU’RE SLEEPING
By: Mick Jackson
Illustrated by: John Broadley
Published: February 2, 2021
Publisher: Pavilion Children’s Books
Non-Fiction
Have you ever thought about what goes on in the world while you are sleeping? No matter where you live, there are people working, driving, waking up, and animals wide awake. On the other side of the world, there are kids at school while you are sleeping.
With muted pinks, blues, and black, children get to experience what happens while they are sleeping. Beginning with the busy city, there are the workers that clean while we sleep, bakers that bake while we sleep, and convenience store workers who stay open all night. There are the hospital workers caring for the sick and injured and truck drivers delivering products across the country while we sleep. There are firemen waiting for the alarm to sound and parents waking up with crying babies that need changing or feeding.
In the woods, there are animals that do most of their activity at night. And, on the other side of the world there are kids just like you, wide awake in class or watching their favorite show, or at practice. Then, in the morning, while you are getting ready for your day, all those kids are being tucked into bed.
This book offers kids, maybe even ones that have a hard time going to sleep, something to think about. You could have a conversation about the people in your own community, in your own family that are still awake while you are asleep. Maybe you have a truck driver, a nurse, or a factory worker that works the third shift in your family, or someone that lives 8+ hours away that you know. You can talk about how they are just going to work and what that might be like for them. I think this book opens kids’ eyes to the importance of their world still functioning while they are sleeping. We couldn’t get our mail or groceries or clothes if people weren’t willing to work while most of us were sleeping.
The author is from the UK, so some of the language is a bit different from what we use in the United States, but again, that just makes for another learning opportunity while reading with your child. What a great book to add to your child’s bedtime reading!
Mick Jackson is a British writer, born in 1960, in Great Harwood, Lancashire, and educated at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Blackburn. Jackson worked in local theatre, studied theatre arts at Dartington College of Arts, and played in a rock band called The Screaming Abdabs. In 1990, he enrolled in a creative writing course at the University of East Anglia and began working on his first novel, THE UNDERGROUND MAN. He has been a full-time writer since 1995.
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Posted Under bedtime, Book Review, Children's books, John Broadley, Mick Jackson, non-fiction