Simon Sort of Says

Starred review from January 30, 2023
Centering 12-year-old Simon O’Keefe’s recent move to a completely off-the-grid town and told in his laugh-out-loud first-person perspective, Bow (Stand on the Sky) delivers a compassionate and refreshingly hopeful novel about a tween navigating the aftermath of a school shooting, which takes place before this book’s start. Hoping to escape the anxiety-inducing notoriety they’ve been experiencing after the event, Simon and his family move to Grin and Bear It, Neb., where all electronic devices are banned. The devices, local scientists say, would interfere with their radio telescopes, which are listening for signals of extraterrestrial activity. Since no one can google him, Simon is optimistic that he can fly under the radar and put his past behind him. He makes fast friends with classmates Agate Van der Zwann, who is white and autistic, and half-white, half-Filipino Kevin Matapung; together, they set out to create false messages from aliens, using Kevin’s family’s contraband microwave to attempt to trick the scientists. Without detracting from Simon’s uplifting emotional arc about making peace with his past and looking toward a brighter future with friends, Bow imbues this sincere story with levity by employing madcap plot points, including several animal-centered shenanigans featuring squirrels, dogs, and emus. Ages 8–12. Agent: Jane Putch, Eyebait Management.

January 1, 2023

Gr 5 Up-Facing trauma from the past is difficult, but this book handles it masterfully. Main character Simon is the only survivor from a shooting in his school classroom. He and his family have just moved to Grin and Bear It, NE-a National Quiet Zone town without internet, cell phones, or television. He hopes it will be the perfect place to find the "now" version of himself. While on his journey, Simon makes friends with Agate and Kevin. All three kids face different types of pressure and support one another as they seek out coping mechanisms and strategies. Simon's mother works as the town undertaker and his father works for the Catholic Church. It is a very rural environment, and a large part of the story is Simon and his friends experiencing birthing goats, being chased by emus or an attack peacock, training the sweetest service dog ever, and even faking an alien signal to the scientists managing a Large Radio Telescope. In the mix are an incompetent morgue assistant who is constantly losing bodies (or taking the wrong ones!) and a wild squirrel who ate the sacrament. Simon is a funny, lovable character who has lived through an unthinkable event. Simon is white, Kevin is Filipino American, and Agate is white and autistic. Funny and heartfelt in equal measure, this book tackles some tough topics, but the humor keeps readers engaged, and it is easy to care about these characters. VERDICT A solid purchase for all libraries that serve middle grade readers A solid purchase for all libraries that serve middle grade readers. It deftly handles the sensitive topic of being a young trauma survivor; warning for school shooting content.-Claire Covington

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 15, 2022
Attempting to start over, a traumatized tween and his parents move to a town where electronic devices are banned. In a tale that will put readers through an emotional wringer, Bow crafts an uproarious small-town comedy with a devastating tragedy at its core played out by a cast as memorable for its animals as its people. Having gone through a year of therapy and home schooling after witnessing the deaths of the rest of his fifth grade class in a school shooting that happens before the events of the book, Simon O'Keeffe hopes the move to Grin And Bear It, Nebraska, will let him escape the relentless notoriety and start seventh grade as an ordinary new kid. As no one in town is allowed to have a computer, cellphone, or even unshielded microwave because of the supersensitive radio telescopes nearby, things go well...for a while. He even makes friends with Agate, a classmate who cheerfully announces that she's autistic and challenges him to a gross-out contest. (Which he easily wins, what with his mother's being an undertaker.) Though developments--ranging from a roundup of escaped emus to being tasked with socializing a winsome puppy in service-dog training--provide plenty of warm and comical moments, the secret comes out eventually, spiraling into a crisis exacerbated by chance events and Simon's still uncontrollable reactions to sirens and other triggers. Readers will be relieved and cheered by the way he ultimately finds both the inner stuff and outer support to weather it. The cast largely presents as White. Adroit, sensitive, horrifying, yet hilarious. (resources) (Fiction. 9-13)

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 2, 2023
Grades 5-8 Author of Stand on the Sky (2019) Bow delivers another middle-grade page turner. Seventh-grader Simon O'Keefe moves with his parents to the small town of Grin And Bear It, Nebraska. Hoping to help their son forget a traumatic event, his dad, a Catholic deacon (and sackbut player), and mom, an undertaker, help Simon adjust. Though the townspeople are thirsty to find out more about the O'Keefes, Simon wants to get through the school year by remaining incognito. That plan becomes moot when he befriends a girl named Agate and a boy named Kevin. All seems normal until the reason for the O'Keefes' move is exposed, causing anxieties to flare in Simon that result in conflicts among the trio. Bow diffuses the story's serious topics, ranging from parental and social issues to mental and emotional health, with humor and a silly scheme. Middle-grade students will resonate with the worries and pressures attached to making friends and meeting one another's families. A tale of healing that serves as an excellent reminder to never assume we know what plights another friend is going through.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2023
Seventh grader Simon and his family are new to Grin and Bear It, Nebraska, an unusual town located in the National Quiet Zone, a center for scientific research that restricts radio transmissions. There's no internet, and even microwave ovens are prohibited. They left their home in Omaha because, as Simon tells it, his family is odd, with a mother who is an embalmer and a father who plays the sackbut ("It's a kind of trombone"). These initial details are only the beginning of what builds into a gallimaufry of ­eccentricity. One neighbor has an emu farm; Simon's new friend, Agate, has siblings named Jade, Jasper, Coral, Onyx, and Mica and a large supply of witty radical T-shirts. There are funeral-home disasters, escaped wildlife, and plans for an elaborate prank choreographed by Simon and Agate. Hidden in all this jokey mayhem are small hints of a dark backstory. Why has the family relocated? Why can't Simon be in a room with just one exit? When it is revealed to the reader that Simon was the sole survivor of a school shooting in his previous town, the tone of the story shifts abruptly, inviting a reread to view the tale in a new light given our insight into Simon's past. This novel takes a considerable narrative risk and would be an excellent catalyst for discussion. Sarah Ellis

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2023
Seventh grader Simon and his family are new to Grin and Bear It, Nebraska, an unusual town located in the National Quiet Zone, a center for scientific research that restricts radio transmissions. There's no internet, and even microwave ovens are prohibited. They left their home in Omaha because, as Simon tells it, his family is odd, with a mother who is an embalmer and a father who plays the sackbut ("It's a kind of trombone"). These initial details are only the beginning of what builds into a gallimaufry of eccentricity. One neighbor has an emu farm; Simon's new friend, Agate, has siblings named Jade, Jasper, Coral, Onyx, and Mica and a large supply of witty radical T-shirts. There are funeral-home disasters, escaped wildlife, and plans for an elaborate prank choreographed by Simon and Agate. Hidden in all this jokey mayhem are small hints of a dark backstory. Why has the family relocated? Why can't Simon be in a room with just one exit? When it is revealed to the reader that Simon was the sole survivor of a school shooting in his previous town, the tone of the story shifts abruptly, inviting a reread to view the tale in a new light given our insight into Simon's past. This novel takes a considerable narrative risk and would be an excellent catalyst for discussion.

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)