Simon Sort of Says

A middle-grade comedy with a strong and tender core.

12-year-old Simon has just moved to Grin and Bear It , Nebraska — a town where the internet is banned because it interferes with the radio telescopes looking for signals from aliens.

For most seventh graders, going offline forever would be a deal-breaker — but Simon is famous for the worst thing that ever happened to him. When he makes a friend who wants to give the radio telescopes what they’re looking for, he grabs the chance to spin a different story.

Newbery Honor, Schenider Family Honor, National Book Award Longlist. State-level awards galore.

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About Me

Hi, I’m Erin. I used to want to be a physicist when I grew up, but I dropped out of my PhD program and started writing books instead — mostly poetry and novels for young readers.

I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but the book thing actually worked out. I’ve published six novels and three volumes of poetry — my secret poetry identity is Erin Noteboom — plus this memoir no one read. Between them, they’ve won a fistful of prizes, including a Newbery Honor, the Governor Generals’ Award for young people’s literature, the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, and the CBC Literary Award for poetry.

My hometown is Omaha, Nebraska, but I accidentally blew it up in one of my books. I now live in Kitchener, Ontario, and I write in my garden shed.

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