Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow

Simon O'Keeffe tells a lot of stories: like how his family was driven out of Omaha by alpacas. And how his church-deacon dad accidentally gave a squirrel a holy sacrament. And how his undertaker mom occasionally has to wrangle emus.

But the story Simondoesn'ttell is the one he'd do anything to forget: Simon is the only survivor of a school shooting. That story has followed him everywhere everywhere except his new home in the National Quiet Zone, where the internet is banned so radio astronomers can listen for signs of life in space.

Then Simon meets a kid who wants to give the astronomers what they've been looking for . . . and he finally gets the chance to tell a new story about himself.

This is that story.

Hilarious, heart-wrenching and ultimately hopeful, this story is about finding your friends, healing your heart and speaking your truth.(From Scholastic).

Erin Bow is an American-born physicist, poet and children's author currently based in Kitchener, Ont. Bow won the CBC Poetry Prize in 2001 for Poems for Carl Hruska and her novel Stand on the Sky was the winner of the Governor General's Award for Young People's Literature.