It should­n’t be that hard to come out to your par­ents as gay if your par­ents are a les­bian cou­ple, but some­how Simon isn’t find­ing it easy. He is also try­ing to adjust to a new school, a new set of friends, an improved rela­tion­ship with his for­mer­ly absent father, and a first love — so many pow­er­ful emo­tions and new expe­ri­ences, so much to adapt to in a short peri­od of time. In addi­tion, he is try­ing to fig­ure out what his Jew­ish iden­ti­ty means to him. Simon suf­fers from debil­i­tat­ing anx­i­ety and pan­ic attacks, the source of which he does not yet under­stand. His com­pli­cat­ed fam­i­ly includes a dif­fi­cult uncle who abused him when he was very young. When his moth­er trag­i­cal­ly dies in a car acci­dent, he learns to lean on his friends old and new as he forges a rocky but steady path toward adult­hood and self-understanding.

Watch­ing Simon start to learn about him­self and watch­ing him mature and grow makes for a reward­ing read­ing expe­ri­ence. He dis­cov­ers his per­son­al truths slow­ly with obsta­cles along the way. Ulti­mate­ly, he finds that a sol­id and close-knit fam­i­ly can be an uncon­ven­tion­al one, filled with the sup­port and love of the peo­ple around him.

Teens fac­ing sim­i­lar issues will sym­pa­thize and relate to Simon and those who care for him as they watch him grow into the per­son he hopes to be.