You know how when you first meet someone they tell you only so much about themselves? They pretty much tell you or show you who they want you to think they are and not necessarily who they really are? It takes some time for people to decide they want to tell you their truth. This book pretty much starts out the same way. We meet Simon and his family and find out they’ve moved from Omaha, Nebraska to …. Grin and Bear It, Nebraska. We hear all about the alpacas and how Simon’s family pretty much just had to get out of town. They choose Grin and Bear It because it’s near a field of radio telescopes and no one can have internet - so basically nobody can Google them and read about how Simon’s family is running for their lives. Okay, I may be exaggerating and maybe I’m not.
So, they’ve moved in to Grin and Bear It and Simon’s mom is going to be the new Director of the local funeral home - which is part of the house where Simon’s family lives. Simon’s dad is going to be a deacon at the local Catholic church. Simon has to do the thing where you are the new kid in the school and possibly the only new kid they’ve seen in their entire lifetimes and he has to walk in with everyone staring at him.
Don’t even think about putting this book down at this point. This story is only just beginning to show you its truth and it’s a truth you will be incredibly glad you stuck around for.
Things unfold. This involves Agate the girl next door who becomes a good friend. She lives on a goat farm next to an emu farm and these are important facts. Agate is a person who has autism. She is a special human being. Simon it turns out is carrying more than his fair share of being handed a tough one in life. You will want to know. Kevin has a mom who is a scientist and who does not listen and possibly barely sees who Kevin is. Kevin is a good friend also.
Now these three young people are awesome. They are about to come up with an exceptional plan involving science, technology and all of those radio telescopes in the nearby field that Kevin’s mom knows all about.
If you haven’t figure out that life is unpredictable, then here comes a shocker for you. Simon’s mom is going to have a missing body, Simon is going to have a pup who is learning to be a Service Dog, and Kevin is going to know a good thing when he sees it.
It can be hard to be a friend. It can be hard to accept what life hands you. It can be really, really hard to face the fact that you can’t control or predict what is going to happen next or in 5 years or 10 years in your life. The really amazing thing that this story reveals is that we are all in this together. When you accept the imperfections of each other and welcome the friend who decides to come along with you on this journey, that’s when life explodes into the realm of wonderful. Einstein says there is no now. Einstein says the past still exists right along side the future which is actually out there right now. How utterly brilliant of the universe to have created a thing called friends. As brilliant as this story with its humor, its raw pain, its trauma, its animals and the extraordinary power of love.
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
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For fans of Kate DiCamillo and Jack Gantos, a hilarious, wrenching, hopeful novel about finding your friends, healing your heart, and speaking your truth.
Simon O’Keeffe’s biggest claim to fame should be the time his dad accidentally gave a squirrel a holy sacrament. Or maybe the alpaca disaster that went viral on YouTube. But the story the whole world wants to tell about Simon is the one he’d do anything to forget: the story in which he’s the only kid in his class who survived a school shooting.
Two years after the infamous event, twelve-year-old Simon and his family move to the National Quiet Zone―the only place in America where the internet is banned. Instead of talking about Simon, the astronomers who flock to the area are busy listening for signs of life in space. And when Simon makes a friend who’s determined to give the scientists what they’re looking for, he’ll finally have the chance to spin a new story for the world to tell.
From award-winning author Erin Bow, Simon Sort of Says is a breathtaking testament to the lasting echoes of trauma, the redemptive power of humor, and the courage it takes to move forward without forgetting the past.---from the publisher
Keywords: Newbery Honor
320 pages 978-1368082853 Ages 8-12
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Did you know that corpses fart? This was one of the many gross/bizarre facts I learned from SIMON SORT OF SAYS. I also learned how to simmer down rioting, runaway emus.
“‘Look, Isobel,’ says Dad, flapping his hands. ‘Agate has brought Simon a very surprising puppy.’
‘Oh really?’ says my mom. She opens the gate.
Over the edge of the hearse garage comes a furious hiss and then the questing head of our attack peacock.
Mom turns and throws her arms open, a kind of ‘come-at-me-bro’ gesture that has been known to give pause even to Pretty Stabby. ‘Don’t you dare,’ she says. ‘I will roast you like a Roman dinner.’
‘Hi, Mrs. O’Keeffe,’ says Agate.
‘A puppy, Agate…’ Mom answers. ‘That’s…’ She leans over the table, her hand on my shoulder. I look at the puppy, who is trying to chew off the strap that fastens his vest around his ribs. He has managed to work his whole lower jaw under it and is chomping busily. The puppy sees me looking and tries to look back, but his head is pinned against his chest now and he just topples over.
‘Hey, don’t do that,’ I say, and scoop up the little fuzz brain. I cradle his soft butt in the crook of one elbow and gently ease his jaw out of the strap. His needle teeth prick at my hand, and he slobbers on me. Aww, man. I wasn’t going to get attached, but the truth is I am in love even before the puppy, belly up in my arm, lets loose a little fountain of pee to claim me.
‘Oh boy,’ says Mom. And that’s how I get a puppy. I name him Hercules, son of Todd.”
***CAUTION: SPOILERS FOLLOW***
Mirror shatters in formless reflections of matter
Glass hand dissolving in ice, petal flowers revolving
Lady in velvet recedes in the nights of good-bye
Shall we go, you and I while we can
Through the transitive nightfall of diamonds?
– Grateful Dead, “Dark Star” (I was compelled to take a break from reading SIMON SORT OF SAYS because my tears were spilling into the library’s copy of this book. I refocused myself by listening to the 3/28/73 live recording of this song on Youtube.)
Twelve-year-old Simon O’Keeffe is the new kid in town. After a year of homeschooling, at their old house in Omaha, Simon and his parents have moved to Grin and Bear It, Nebraska, a little burg in the National Quiet Zone. It’s an odd place where half of the townspeople (Team Science) are astrophysicists who, for the past forty years, have been employing radio telescopes to listen–without success–for messages from outer space. For the sake of science, the town is free of internet, TV and radio signals, and microwaves.
The other half of the town (Team Farm) are the townies–farmers, shopkeepers, teachers, etc.
Simon’s father is a Catholic deacon who plays the sackbut trombone for fun and who was fired from his previous job thanks to an uproariously disastrous Feast of Saint Francis/Blessing of the Animals church ceremony that got out of hand because of the alpacas with whom a parishioner showed up. (The fiasco had apparently gone viral on Youtube.) Simon’s mother is a mortician and the family has purchased the town’s old funeral home (Slaughter and Sons) and moved into the upstairs living quarters. Along with the house, they inherit the irritable, love-seeking male peafowl referred to as Pretty Stabby.
For the first third of the book SIMON SORT OF SAY is a sweet, quirky, frequently laugh-out-loud tale focused on Simon and his two new friends (reminiscent of the Harry, Ron, and Hermione dynamics).
Chubby, frizzy-carrot-orange-haired Agate Van der Zwaan, is a farm kid who, along with her sibs, is named after varieties of rock formations. Their farm brood includes angora goats, ducks, and golden retrievers that are bred and raised to serve as guide dogs. Agate gives Simon a puppy to raise and socialize as part of its training process. Meanwhile, the Ron-like character is Kevin Matapang, who is the offspring of one of the scientists.
I didn’t read the flap copy ahead of time, so I got the full effect of the big surprise. Partway through the tale, we come to learn that Simon is the sole survivor of a mass school shooting that randomly took place in his then-classroom, two years earlier back in Omaha. He survived by playing dead at the bottom of a mound of truly-dead classmates.
SIMON SORT OF SAYS is a stunning, absolutely groundbreaking tale for nine- to twelve-year-olds. It is beyond brilliant how the author addresses the horror of the mass shootings that seem to take place across America a couple of times a week in such an age-appropriate manner.
Simon and his parents are all suffering from PTSD, and a fear of the press. Real-life mass shootings are one of the most f-ed up aspects of twenty-first century American life, and I know of no other book for tweens that begins to approach this unfortunate fact of life with the grace and wisdom that is displayed here. It’s impossible for me to overstate the power and importance of this book, the gun control issues that lurk behind the camaraderie of these three kids and the puppy who is willing to follow his beloved young master everywhere. The backmatter includes resources for dealing with trauma and PTSD.
This is an absolute first-purchase.
Richie Partington, MLIS
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