Shades of Simon Gray (Readers Circle) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "ON THE NIGHT SIMON GRAY RAN HIS '92 HONDA Civic into the Liberty Tree, the peepers exploded right out of the local streams, shrieking like..." (more)
Key Phrases: Jessup Wildemere, Simon Gray, Lieutenant Santino (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

At the center of the town of Bellehaven stands an ancient oak. Two hundred years ago a young man was summarily hanged here after a hasty trial. Now the tree marks the scene of another violent event. Simon Gray, 16, has crashed his '92 Honda Civic into the tree and is in a coma. Most people blame the frogs, the plague of peepers that made the road all slippery that night. None of the adults know that Simon hacked the school computer for three older kids who had bullied him into procuring advance copies of tests for them. As he lies in the coma, they worry about their secret. And in his mind, Simon is walking out of his body and out of time to meet the young murderer at the tree, watched by the hordes of crows that have followed the plague of frogs. A strange mystery-fantasy with plenty of loose ends that point in some tantalizing directions. (Ages 10 to 14) --Patty Campbell --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

On the night that a horde of peepers disgorge themselves from local streams into the town of Bellehaven, "shrieking like souls of the dead disturbed from their slumber," a teenage computer whiz named Simon crashes his car into a landmark, the Liberty Tree. Crows descend next, to consume the dead frogs, and a number of portentous plagues follow metaphoric indicators that the bucolic community is not what it seems. Simon, who has been hacking into the school's computer system to help a group of popular teenagers cheat on their exams, falls into a coma. His stupor is punctured by a series of dreamlike encounters with the ghost of the legendary murderer who was hanged from the Liberty Tree 100 years ago. Was he really as guilty as everyone thought he was? And will Simon's accident catalyze the popular girl with a guilty conscience into renouncing her ill-won college acceptance? Readers may wonder why the police would get involved with a case of high school cheating, and it's hard to believe that these students could fool their teachers. But Simon though forced to share space with a number of less-appealing protagonists, including a shallow, pot-smoking younger sister and a stupid, ambitious jock is a thoughtful, interesting character. McDonald (Shadow People; Swallowing Stones) paints an eerie, electric atmosphere of menace that lingers past the final page. Ages 12-up.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Laurel Leaf (May 13, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440228042
• ISBN-13: 978-0440228042
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #726,953 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eerie and Touching, January 6, 2003

By	"miezee" (Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shades of Simon Gray (Hardcover)

West Nile Virus, plagues of frogs and crows and horrid heat, and a secret cheating ring, all in a quiet little town called Bellehaven, where, 200 years ago, an innocent man named Jessup Wildemere was hanged without a trial.

At the center of all this is Simon Gray, for whom the book is named. At the beginning of the book, Simon crashes his car into the Liberty Tree, where Jessup Wildemere was hung. Was it an accident caused by the frogs all over the road, or a suicide attempt? No one believes it was a suicide attempt, after all, Simon is a "good boy".

Either way, Simon lies in a coma, and his family and the cheating ring to which he, as the hacker, is key, nervously watch as Simon clings to life.

His family includes his sister and his father. His mother died a while back---since then, his sister has begun smoking marijuana to ease the pain, while Simon has kept it all inside, though he sometimes thinks he sees her ghost.

The cheating ring is composed of 3 other people, including Devin, a girl Simon's secretly in love with, and the reason he even decided to help them get test answers off the school database. Unfortunately, Devin is the girlfriend of another one of the people in the cheating ring.

The cheating ring is under suspicion, and police come to Simon's house and take away his computer for investigation.

Meanwhile, Simon, in a coma, experiences an out-of-body experience, during which he talks with Jessup Wildermere. Simon finds out that Jessup is not unlike him, in love with someone who doesn't love him back. Simon finds out what truly happened to Jessup, and is shocked by what he finds.

This book was very touching, a little spooky, and a great peek into the mind of a troubled social outcast and goody-goody. It also really made me think about how often we get the facts wrong, and what permanent effects that can have on people's lives.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complete truth is never black or white, but shades of gray, January 17, 2002

By	Megan "The Book Hunter" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shades of Simon Gray (Hardcover)

Bellehaven. A sleepy little town with a secret that is two hundred years old. In 1798, a young man, Jessup Wildemere, was hanged without a trial for a crime he didn't commit. Now, in the present, 16-year-old Simon Gray has crashed his car into the very same tree that that Jessup was hung on. He is alive, but in a coma, taking with him a secret of his own. He had been bullied into hacking into the school's computer system to procure tests for three older kids. Now the three kids are worried that their secret will be revealed as cops swarm the school, investigating a hacking incident.

While this is going on, Simon, trapped inside his own world, communicates with the long-dead Jessup, and discovers that the man was innocent... And makes some discoveries for himself.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It asks you to think..., January 7, 2005

By	Serena and Isabella's grandma "CVR" (Santa Ana, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shades of Simon Gray (Hardcover)

I love this story. I've read it 3 times. It's about choices (good and bad) and the prices we're willing to pay to get what we want. It doesn't offer any easy answers. It asks you to think about the choices made by these characters and the ones you yourself make. The fantasy/horror elements just make the story more enjoyable for me.