Simon Sort of Says

Erin Bow's Simon Sort of Says is a funny, tender story for 10 year olds about a boy who moves to a town with no internet. On purpose.

What happens

Grin And Bear It, Nebraska, sits inside a National Quiet Zone. It's ringed by giant radio telescopes listening to space, so there's no Wi-Fi, no mobile phones and no TV. Simon thinks it's perfect.

Ask him why his family moved and he'll tell you they were driven out by alpacas. It's a brilliant story (a church blessing of the animals, two screaming alpacas and a very hungry owl). His dad really did lose his job over it. But it isn't the real reason.

Now Simon's mum runs the town funeral home and the family lives in the back of it. There's a peacock called Pretty Stabby who attacks anyone who opens the gate. Simon's new friend Agate thinks all of this is fantastic. She wants his help faking a message from aliens, so the scientists at the telescopes don't give up hope.

Simon's voice is the joy of this book. He's quick and self-mocking, and very funny about his own brain, which he says is an expert in disaster scenarios. You'll laugh out loud at him answering the same questions about funeral homes all week.

And yet you can feel what he isn't saying. The school bell sends him slamming back against the board. He likes a lunch spot with an emergency exit next to it. Nobody in town has looked him up, and he'd like to keep it that way.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The thing Simon's hiding is a shooting at his old school. Of all the children in his class, he's the one who lived. The early chapters only hint at it and it's handled gently, but it sits underneath everything. There are also a few jokes clearly aimed over a child's head.

For a reader who's anxious about that sort of news, it may be one to share. For a child who loves a book that's funny and sad at the same time, it's something special.

What to read next

If they're after another worrier with a brilliant sense of humour, try Better With Butter. Marvel is scared of just about everything, from food poisoning to the school play, until she rescues a very nervous goat.