Skip to main content

Review: Simon Sort of Says

Image
By
Simon Sort of Says
By Erin Bow
Los Angeles, CA: Disney-Hyperion, 2023. Fiction. 305 pgs.

12-year-old Simon O'Keefe and his parents just moved to middle-of-nowhere Nebraska. Literally. Grin and Bear It, NE is a National Quiet Zone -- a town without internet, cell phones, or television. This is the perfect place for a fresh start, especially for Simon, who is eager to escape his internet notoriety following a tragic event at his old school. For a while, things are going well in Grin and Bear It. Since no one can google him, Simon is able to disappear into the weirdness of his new small town with relative anonymity. Simon makes friends, helps to birth goats, chases escaped emus and an attack peacock. But, eventually, his secret comes out and spirals to catastrophe. 

It is a rare book that manages to be hysterically funny and heartbreakingly sad in equal measure -- but this is that book. Simon, and his friends Kevin and Agate, are characters that readers will root for -- whether they are engaged in madcap adventures or managing anxiety and trauma. Simon's traumatic secret, he survived a school shooting that took the lives of his friends and classmates, is sensitively handled and is balanced out in the book by madcap adventures of life in a small town. The overall message of healing is well-delivered. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry

By DeeDee
National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry Edited by J. Patrick Lewis National Geographic, 2012, 183 p. Poetry In this beautiful poetry collection, the National Children's Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis, has teamed up with the amazing photographers at National Geographic. The result is 200 poems about animals, all illustrated with stunning nature photography.  The poems are well chosen and include rhyming, free verse, and shape poetry. Some of the poems are funny, many are contemplative and all are nicely typeset on top of the full color photographs. One of my favorites is a shape poem about flamingos, with a photograph of a flock of flamingos which seem to be standing the the shape of a flamingo (how did they do that?).  Lewis ends the collection with a brief but interesting section about writing animal poetry.  This selection is sure to turn any animal lover into a poetry lover.
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: A Game of Noctis

By
A Game of Noctis By Deva Fagan New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2024. Fiction. 310 pages. On the island of Dantessa, social standings and wealth are determined by your place in the Great Game. If you keep on winning, you can reap treasures, power, and security for yourself and your family; but if you lose too many games, you'll be exiled to Pawn Island and a life of servitude. That's what happens to 12-year-old Pia's grandfather. Due to poor vision, he struggles to see the games, but also can't afford new eyeglasses without winning. When his score falls to zero, he is sent away. Desperate to bring him back, Pia joins a ragtag group of misfits to form a team for the annual game of Noctis. The game requires contestants to perform dangerous challenges in front of a live audience, and no one outside the wealthy Diamond District has ever won. Each member of Pia's team, the Seafoxes, has their own reason to compete, but if they're going to win they'll h...
Post a Comment
Read more