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Simon Says Pa Elaine Marie Alphin Books

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Simon Says Pa Elaine Marie Alphin Books

Charles learned early on to hide his artwork. He is incredibly talented; his ability is far above anyone else he knows, but his art makes people uncomfortable. It makes them feel like they have something to live up to, and that feeling alienates them from Charles. So Charles keeps his artwork hidden. He tries to learn how to be normal, how to fit in with the crowd, how to play the games of Simon Says he seems to see going on all around him, where one person tells everyone else how to behave.

Then Charles reads a book, an exceptional book that seems to expose the games people play. This book shows him exactly what he has been thinking for so long, and he is shocked that someone would dare to share this piece of writing with the world. Even more shocking is that the person sharing the writing was an adolescent--a freshman at Whitman, a specialized boarding school for the arts. Charles needs to meet the author, Graeme Brandt, and find out from him the secret to taking something so personal and being able to share it with so many people without fear. Maybe Graeme will tell Charles the secret that will allow him to share his artwork with the world.

When Charles finally does meet Graeme, though, he is not the person Charles expected he would be. Could someone like Graeme really have written this book that changed Charles' whole life? Could he have written it without even realizing what he was doing?

The characters in this book were very vivid. I felt like I knew Charles and Adrian and Graeme, and I liked the relationships that formed among them. I also liked that homosexuality was a pretty big aspect of this book, but it wasn't treated like it was anything shocking; it was just accepted as no big deal.

I thought the teachers at this school were far too clueless to be believed, though. As guardians of high school students at a boarding school, they should have been much more aware than they were.


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Simon Says Pa Elaine Marie Alphin Books Reviews

I was very excited when I bought this book. I love young adult literature and have always related to the themes of social alienation and conformity. But the unrelenting angst was just too much to bear. Through the whole novel the protagonist was nothing but "oh woe is me, no one will ever understand me, why do I even try." I understand feeling this way at times, especially in one's youth, but I kept waiting for him to learn something, toughen up a bit, SOMETHING. I kept reading because the introduction and foreshadowing piqued my interest and I wanted to see how it ended, but it was a nauseating read. The frequent italicized comments in the parantheses were unnecessary, and kept hindering my reading; I felt like the author was pounding me over the head with the extra meanings and deeper insights into the characters. I didn't even feel for any of these characters; in fact, as I read I thought, "Is THIS how I sounded in high school? No wonder so few people wanted to be around me!" I do give the book two stars instead of one, however, because of it's important reflections on conformity and doing what others expect of you. I think teens will be able to relate to that, and it's something that's true of a lot of adults, too. Overall, though, I thought the book laid on the angst way too thick.
Even in kindergarten, Charles knew that he didn't want to play Simon Says. He didn't want to do what somebody named Simon said. He wanted to be himself. If it was a choice of playing Simon Says or standing in the corner, he stood in the corner. Charles is a sophomore in high school now, and he is still determined that he will not play Simon Says.

But people have always been dissatisfied with who Charles is. His life is full of Simons telling him to be different. Don't use his left hand; don't paint pictures that make them feel uncomfortable; make them proud of him; study for the right kind of job. The more he uses his paintings to show people how he feels, the more they hate him. They make fun of him, tear up his class assignments, and call him names. Teachers harass him, and his parents are ashamed of him.

That's why Charles wants to meet Graeme. When Graeme was a freshman at Whitman High School for the Arts, he wrote a book, The Eye of the Storm, that was published and made people sit up and blink. Charles knew as soon as he read it that he had to go to Whitman, too, and meet Graeme. Here was somebody who knew all about the Simon Says games people play, and yet he obviously never played them himself. Charles knows that he can learn from Graeme how to be himself without playing the game, either.

But Graeme is not what Charles expected him to be. Graeme is a senior at Whitman now, and he hasn't written another book since his first one. Graeme himself doesn't know why. Nor does he know why he's a disappointment to Charles. What does Charles want from him? The relationship between the two boys becomes more and more complicated, until it erupts in a storm that will change them both forever.

The themes of this book are desperately thought-provoking --- Always be yourself, because the alternative can be deadly. But to be yourself, you have to know who you are. And what we are in any given moment is not the whole truth of us. It can be more terrible to live than to die, but death takes away everything. And Simon Says might be a game we all play, even when we don't want to.

--- Reviewed by Tamara Penny
Charles learned early on to hide his artwork. He is incredibly talented; his ability is far above anyone else he knows, but his art makes people uncomfortable. It makes them feel like they have something to live up to, and that feeling alienates them from Charles. So Charles keeps his artwork hidden. He tries to learn how to be normal, how to fit in with the crowd, how to play the games of Simon Says he seems to see going on all around him, where one person tells everyone else how to behave.

Then Charles reads a book, an exceptional book that seems to expose the games people play. This book shows him exactly what he has been thinking for so long, and he is shocked that someone would dare to share this piece of writing with the world. Even more shocking is that the person sharing the writing was an adolescent--a freshman at Whitman, a specialized boarding school for the arts. Charles needs to meet the author, Graeme Brandt, and find out from him the secret to taking something so personal and being able to share it with so many people without fear. Maybe Graeme will tell Charles the secret that will allow him to share his artwork with the world.

When Charles finally does meet Graeme, though, he is not the person Charles expected he would be. Could someone like Graeme really have written this book that changed Charles' whole life? Could he have written it without even realizing what he was doing?

The characters in this book were very vivid. I felt like I knew Charles and Adrian and Graeme, and I liked the relationships that formed among them. I also liked that homosexuality was a pretty big aspect of this book, but it wasn't treated like it was anything shocking; it was just accepted as no big deal.

I thought the teachers at this school were far too clueless to be believed, though. As guardians of high school students at a boarding school, they should have been much more aware than they were.