My Thoughts: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

5 freshly baked oatmeal butterscotch chip cookies.

Cover Love:
It's alright.  Not my favorite cover ever, but it's fine.

Why I Wanted to Read This:
I liked the synopsis and have been hearing good things, so I checked it out and gave it a go.  Here's the synopsis from GoodReads:

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

Romance?:  Yes!

My Thoughts:
I adored Simon.  I want him to be in my life.  He's darling and funny and loyal and sweet.  Seriously, I just loved him!

I loved Blue too.  Their emails back and forth were so sweet and flirty and fun.  It was easy to see how well matched they were.  One of the things I liked about this book is there wasn't any of that angst that comes with a lot of contemporary teen dramas.  Yes, there was a little misunderstanding, but it was still all over email so there weren't awkward scenes where Blue and Simon weren't talking to each other in the halls and their friends weren't having to pick sides.

I like to think that Simon's coming out is more like how it would be today, with the majority of people being just fine with it.  Yes, Martin was an ass, but even he knew he'd gone too far and while there were a few assholes, on the whole most everyone was just fine with his being gay.

I adored Simon's family and how supportive and wonderful they were.  Even though Simon hated how they made a big deal out of everything, Simon's mom's talk to him hit me hard.  That's exactly how you feel as a mom, when you aren't allowed into your child's everyday life anymore.  It's so hard and so sad, but you are also so excited to see what kind of person they are becoming!

This book made me cry a bit and smile a ton.  I went back and re-read sections as soon as I was done.  I just loved it.

To Sum Up:  Some language and situations are a bit mature for my library, but I will be recommending that the high schools in my district get a few copies each!