★ 01/30/2023
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. (Feb.)
Accolades
A Newbery Honor Winner
Longlisted for the National Book Award
A Schneider Family Book Award Honor Winner
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
An Audie Award Finalist
A January/February 2023 IndieNext List Selection
A National Education Association’s Read Across America Recommendation
A 2024 Texas Lone Star Reading List Selection
A 2024–2025 California Young Reader Medal Award Nominee
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2023
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2023
A School Library Journal Best Book of 2023
A Shelf Awareness Best Book of 2023
A Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books Blue Ribbon Book
A Chicago Public Library Kids Best of the Best Book
A 2023–2024 Project LIT Book Club Pick
A 2023 Cybils Awards Finalist
An Amazon Editors’ Pick January 2023
“A perfectly paced, layered novel that never speaks down to its readers and handles difficult situations with remarkable sensitivity. Bow hits all the right chords and delivers a story that is funny, poignant and—most important—hopeful.” —New York Times
"With an abundance of humor, vibrant characters, and a gentle approach to hard truths, Simon Sort of Says strikes a perfect balance of fun and meaning. A remarkable achievement." —Ali Benjamin, New York Times best-selling and National Book Award–nominated author of The Thing About Jellyfish
"Blunt as trauma, delicate as healing, and hilarious and tragic as middle school can be—each piece of Simon Sort of Says snaps together like the most satisfying jigsaw puzzle. This book is as close to everything as one book can be." —Kyle Lukoff, Newbery Honor–winning author of Too Bright to See
"Fast-paced and full of quirky characters, Simon Sort of Says presents a tragedy stitched up with humor, sensitivity, and rare humanity." —Jack Gantos, Newbery Award–winning author of Dead End in Norvelt
“A tribute to the power of friendship and the courage it takes to pursue joy in a world of violence.” —National Book Foundation, National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Longlist
*"An uproarious small-town comedy with a devastating tragedy at its core." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
*"Despite the weighty premise, Bow’s storytelling brims with vitality." —The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, starred review
*"Laugh-out-loud . . . a compassionate and refreshingly hopeful novel." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Heartwarming, heartbreaking and, it must be said, hilarious.” —National Catholic Reporter
01/01/2023
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
★ 2022-09-28
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)
