The Day No One Woke Up

Polly Ho-Yen's The Day No One Woke Up is a mysterious story for 8 year olds that begins on a very ordinary, very rubbish Tuesday.

What happens

Ana would rather stay under her duvet. She tells her mum she has a sore throat, but her mum's a nurse and the thermometer says otherwise. So off she goes to school to face Tio.

Tio lives next door. When they were little they were best friends. Now he laughs at her, copies her in a silly voice and tells the whole lunch hall she can't sing, after he catches her singing alone on the school stage.

Then Auntie Dodo doesn't turn up for Chewy Tuesday (their weekly family dinner, named after some VERY chewy brownies). When Mum finally gets through to her, Dodo can't remember what Chewy Tuesday even is.

And all the while, someone is keeping strange little case notes on Ana. They track her "Energy Tension" through the day, and they seem very interested in the boy next door. Who's watching?

From there it gets much stranger. Ana wakes up to find the whole city asleep, apart from one other person. You can probably guess who. The two of them have to cross the city together to work out what's going on.

What really stays with you is how honestly Ana's feelings are written. There's the heavy ball in her stomach and the lonely feeling of not being able to tell her mum the truth. Most children will know that one.

Her best friend Layla is fab. She's small, fierce and always hunting for snails!

It's worth knowing the unkindness feels very real. Tio is properly mean, and Ana lies to her mum and pushes Layla away because of it. Dodo's sudden illness is scary too, with an ambulance called. If your reader is going through something similar it might hit hard, but it could also open up a good chat.

What to read next

If they like the way this author turns a normal city strange, try Boy in the Tower. Ade watches from his tower block window as odd plants start bringing buildings down, until he can't see any other children at all.