Psychologist Jens Hellmann said that the accounts "resemble what I would deem very close to an autistic child's parents' dream.

[12] The majority of the memoir is told through 58 questions Higashida and many other people dealing with autism are commonly asked, as well as interspersed sections of short prose.

[14] On its publication in July 2013 in the UK, it was serialised on BBC Radio 4 as 'Book of the Week' and went straight to Number 1 on the Sunday Times bestseller list.

After its publication in the US (August 2013) it was featured on The Daily Show in an interview between Jon Stewart and David Mitchell[15] and the following day it became #1 on Amazon's bestseller list.

Other celebrities also offer their support, such as Whoopi Goldberg in her gift guide section in People's 2013 holiday issue.

The adaptation featured an outdoor maze designed by the Dutch collective Observatorium, and an augmented reality app was developed for the play.

Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8: A Young Man's Voice from the Silence of Autism is a follow-up to The Reason I Jump, written in 2015 and credited to the same author, Higashida, when he was between the ages of 18 and 22.

[30][31][32] Skeptics have claimed that there is no proof that Higashida can communicate independently, and that the English translation represents the ideals of author David Mitchell and Keiko Yoshida.

[2][18][31] The book is a collection of short chapters arranged in eight sections in which Higashida explores identity, family relationships, education, society, and his personal growth.