Read This Book

Most kids wouldn’t be thrilled to move to a National Quiet Zone, where internet, radio, and microwaves are banned…but seventh-grader Simon is more than okay with his family’s move. No internet means that he can start over at his new school and not worry about his new classmates googling him and discovering that he’s pretty well known—as the only kid in his fifth-grade class to survive a school shooting. Grin and Bear It, Nebraska, is certainly a unique place, and Simon finds himself making two new friends and weathering the challenges of a new home while keeping a big secret. But even in a place where there’s no internet, the past will inevitably catch up with him.

This is the funniest book about the aftermath of a traumatic book you’ll ever read. Simon has an upbeat, lightly sarcastic personality, and he can tell a good story. He uses this humor to deflect attention and as a coping mechanism when life gets tough. At the beginning of the story, he doesn’t really reveal what he endured two years earlier, but readers will pick up on the clues he drops, especially based on his phobias and fears. The friendships he makes, particularly with a girl named Agate, are really lovely. Agate doesn’t fully understand what Simon is going through, but her sensitivity and kindness prove invaluable, especially when she hooks him up with a golden retriever puppy to foster as part of his service dog training. (Don’t worry, nothing happens to the dog!)

I also really loved the relationship between Simon and his parents. His dad is a deacon and musician and tries to be sensitive to Simon’s needs. His mom is a funeral director and mortician, and she has a slightly dark sense of humor but is fiercely protective. Simon very much feels like the school shooting is a tragedy that happened to him, but as Bow demonstrates, this sort of crime affects an entire family, and his parents are doing their best to hold them all together. As Simon processes his trauma and learns how to deal with unexpected curveballs (including tornado sirens, a very mean peacock, a plan to fake an alien message, and a lot of emus), they’re with him every step of the way. This book broke my heart and made me cry, but it also made me laugh aloud, and I was rooting for Simon every step of the way.