Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow

"Who wouldn't want to live in a place with no internet and no cell phones and no TV or radio? Who wouldn't want to live surrounded by emu farms in a town that's half astrophysicists and half people who are afraid of their microwaves. I mean isn't that the American Dream? Hint: no."

I am only going to give brief details about the plot of this book because I do not want to spoil your reading experience. Erin Bow drops tiny hints (Betsy Bird calls them breadcrumbs) which gradually give you the details of what has happened to Simon back at his old school. Here are a few of them:

My father got fired - the hilarious reasons are outlined in chapter one. Simon's mother is an undertaker. Undertakers can work anywhere. "And that's why we came here. Anyway, that's what I tell people."

"I would have moved to Mars if it got me away from what happened in Omaha."

"I don't like the stiff and clearly brand-new backpack, but I never got the old one back ... "

"I was home-schooled all last year, and I asked my parents not to include the records from before that."

"The bell is loud - it's a real bell, being hit by a real hammer, sounding like a real emergency - and my body slams backwards into the chalkboard, the eraser tray jamming into my hip. But none of the other kids notice."

There are some terrific plot devices in this story - no internet means no one can Google Simon to find out about his past. The name of the town Grin and Bear It allows the author to create a small town in America with so many quirky shops and other businesses including the funeral home which is called Slaughter and Sons. I love the other fun towns Erin Bow "invents" (perhaps they are real) Truth or Consequences, New Mexico; Come by Chance, Newfoundland; and Intercourse, Pennsylvania. There are emus in this story which is funny to me because I am here in Australia - we never do find out why Agate's neighbour has an emu farm. I also adore the minor adult characters in this story - Simon's mum and dad just seem so real and Erin Bow describes them so well; Agate has a wonderful eclectic family and even though we don't meet her dad until the final chapters I just wanted to hug him and Mrs Van der Zwaan. Mum has a deep coffee addiction - so funny to me especially as a non-coffee person. Read this:

"I need a proper mocha ... seventy two percent dark Madagascar chocolate, microfoamed almond milk and two shots of espresso, Yirgicheff bean, lightly washed."

If you want to read more the Kirkus review contains the main plot spoiler.

Adroit, sensitive, horrifying, yet hilarious. Kirkus Star review

Betsy Bird sums up this idea too, of not spoiling the story:

I almost fear telling you too much about it, in case you don’t come to it with the same clean slate that I had. The fact of the matter is that Erin Bow has created a masterpiece of tone with this book. Combining a legitimately horrifying situation with humor, heart, and the occasional Jesus squirrel, this is both the funniest book you’ll read this year, and the best-written. Would that I were joking about that. In three words: I am not.

BUT Betsy does go on to say do not read her review if you want to avoid possible spoilers!

The book itself has this summary:

"Two years after a tragedy saddles him with viral fame, twelve-year-old Simon O'Keefe and his family move to Grin And Bear It, Nebraska, where the internet and cell phones are banned so (that) astrophysicists can scan the sky for signs of alien life, and where, with the help of two new friends, a puppy and a giant radio telescope, Simon plans to restart the narrative of his life."

I love the final words of Betsy Bird's review:

This is for the kid who likes their humor to be complicated, their writing to be scintillating, and to never, ever, know what an author is going to do next. One and all, please be so good as to meet the most memorable book of the year.

Here are some detailed discussion questions.

Some time ago I joined an online book discussion group. I don't read every book but this one intrigued me. I am about to do some traveling so I have bought a small Kindle and I added this book to my Kindle library. Over the last few days while I had a small mountain mini break I decided to test out reading on the Kindle and I picked this book as a perfect one to try. Simon sort of Says is such an engrossing story with a plot structure I really appreciate where the author gradually reveals past events and also where other kids, not by design or on purpose, gently help the main character recover from a trauma. I do like to highlight sections as I read and in the past with Kindle titles I previously easily did this on my ipad but it took me a few tries to master this on a different device. The highlighted notes give me access to text quotes and also jog my memory about plot details and also a way to join the online discussion questions posted earlier this year. 

Companion books:

The Probability of everything

The Midnight Children