Resident celebrates publication of first children's book

For some, fatigue is a fact of life. For Dartmouth resident and Bridgewater State University grad Allison Carreiro, it was the inspiration for her first children's book, published in late December.

A rhyming life-lesson book, “Too Tired Tommy” is about a boy who goes to bed late and suffers the consequences the next morning — including failing a test. According to Carreiro, the inspiration behind the story was her brother Nick.

“He was a horrible sleeper,” she laughed, adding that unlike Tommy, her brother was actually good at school. “But he is honored that’s it dedicated to him — even though he always teases me about it.” 

The newly published author said that it all started with a class project during her senior year at Dartmouth High, where she was assigned to write a story with a “life lesson.”

From there, Carreiro went about creating a kind of pop-up book that became “Too Tired Tommy.”

After turning in her assignment in 2015, not only did her teacher give her a perfect score, but also suggested the story be published.

“I was like: Alright, I’ll try publishing it,” Carreriro added.

Nearly six years later, that assignment is now a published children’s book with what Carreiro said is “much better art” than her original version.

“They did a good job,” she said.

In addition to her writing, Carreiro is also studying for her master’s degree in communication disorders at Nova Southeastern University, and working as a speech-language pathology assistant for Fall River’s public schools.

She has been reading her new book to some of her students and said that some have already dubbed it their favorite book of all time.

“It has definitely drawn their attention and focus,” she said. “It’s also really good for speech therapy — they can do some inferencing and predicting.”

According to the newly published author, her hope is to at some point adapt her story to include more interactive elements, noting that is how the book was when she first turned in her assignment at Dartmouth High. 

Another story in the works, she said, is one based on her family’s dogs, but she is “going to wait and see how this one goes.” 

“Plus, it’s expensive to publish,” she laughed.

“Too Tired Tommy” is published by Pittsburgh-based publisher Dorrance Publishing Co. and is available through the publisher, the Barnes and Noble website, and Amazon.