The House That Whispers
To give their parents time alone to recalibrate their marriage, Simon and his sisters, Talia and Rose, are spending the week with their grandmother, Nanaleen. Things have been rough since their dad lost his job, and now there’s a new worry: Nanaleen has become alarmingly forgetful, and her big, old house seems like it might be too much for her to take care of. With all this weighing on his family (white), the last thing Simon wants is to add to their stress by telling anyone that he is trans. No one in his family knows he’s a boy, or that he’s chosen the name Simon. Instead, he switches words in his head when someone unknowingly calls him the wrong thing. For now, at least, it works. At Nanaleen’s, Simon becomes preoccupied with the scratching sounds in the walls. Could it be a ghost? Perhaps it’s Nanaleen’s sister, Brie, who moved away from the family when she was only 17 for reasons Simon doesn’t know. As Simon becomes more desperate to solve the mystery of the ghost, he also grows increasingly frustrated at being perceived as a girl, and more concerned about what seems to be a growing rift between him and his sisters. The characterizations of Simon and his sisters shine in a story that underscores the significance of strong sibling bonds, especially in the middle of family change. ©2023 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 9--13
Age Range:
Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Format:
Novel
Subjects:
Change
Families
Gender Identity
Grandmothers
LGBTQ+ Persons
Memory
Secrets
Siblings
Transgender People
Diversity subject:
LGBTQ Character/Topic
Cognitive/Neurological Disability/Condition
Publisher:
Little, Brown
Publish Year: 2023
Pages: 330
ISBN: 9780316277112
CCBC Location: Fiction, Thompson