"His fear was replaced with a sense of wonder,a sense of absolute freedom. He felt himself being lifted right into the air.(13)" This quote gives you a sense of what Simon Gray was thinking before he crashed. It makes you wonder if it was his intention or not to go into The Liberty Tree. Simon is left in a coma, and his friends begin to freak out. Simon is a very smart high school student. His friends and him, begin to hack into the school computer systems. They found out how to get tests early, and other things that could lead them to trouble. When Simon is in the hospital with a coma, his friends are scared that he didn't cover up all the things they've done. They worry about getting caught, and they wonder if Simon did this on purpose. The theme of this book is to show that you never really know what is going to happen in the future, and who is really going to be there for you. It is written in third person because it gives the descriptions and thoughts of all the characters, which makes it very easy to follow along and understand. Overall I really enjoyed this novel, and would recommend it to any high school student to read.
Do You like book Shades Of Simon Gray (2003)?
I really enjoyed this book and think advanced middle school or early high school students would like it too. It deals with high stakes cheating in a high school as well as issues of friendship and guilt that surround the group of students involved in "the project" of cheating continuously. The characters are well developed gradually throughout the book through an omnicient third person narrator. While I get the symbolism of relating Simon to the young man who was wrongfully hanged because he loved the wrong woman in the 1800s I do not feel that the storyline of Simon and Jessup meeting at the hanging tree throughout Simon's coma was as powerful as it could have been.
—Sarah Nagy
