Simon Sort Of Says

Character, character, character. A great novel is built on vivid and memorable characters, and Erin Bow delivers and then some with this funny, tender, and quirky book about a boy who moves to a small town in an effort to help him recover from PTSD.

I loved getting to know Simon, Agate, and Kevin, laughing at their madcap schemes, and suffering and healing with each of them in turn. 

It is not often that a perfectly paced, brilliantly crafted middle-grade novel comes along. As both a writer and a reader, I applaud Bow on an impeccable novel. This book deserves… show more.

Oh boy, the voice. Erin Bow captures the first-person voice of Simon, a modern-day middle schooler moving to a new town, in a way that’s so unaffected, funny, and distinct that you just want him to tell you story after story.

You want to hear about the ostrich farm, the squirrel-and-eucharist disaster, the small-town funeral home where his family lives…and if you’re like me, you want to listen to every detail about the mortuary peacock, Pretty Stabby.

Because you already love Simon, when he finally—sort of—tells you the whole story about what brought him to this place, it’s heart-stopping.… show more.

Seventh-grader Simon, with his new emotional-support-puppy-in-training Hercules, is trying to cope with some pretty severe PTSD after being the only survivor of his entire fifth-grade class school shooter massacre.

No mental health punches are pulled, which I appreciate, but Simon also heals step by hard step and with the support of his family and friends in this hilarious and highly entertaining novel.

The setting alone is worth the price, fictional Grin and Bear It, Nebraska, home of the National Quiet Zone (no internet) where radio astronomers listen for sounds of life in the universe. There are alpacas and emus. There… show more.