Trust us, the gross-out does not stop here.
Sick Simon is a children's book designed to teach children about preventing the spread of germs.The book follows Simon through a week of school, as his illness spreads to everyone around him.
Tropes:
- Academic Athlete: School is Simon's favourite place and his favourite subject is math. At the same time, he gleefully anticipates a kickball game.
- Alliterative Title: Sick Simon.
- Artistic License – Medicine: Simon is stated to have a cold, but at one point is shown vomiting, which is definitely not a cold symptom.
- Card-Carrying Villain: The germs brag about making people sick.
- Cheerful Child: Simon is very excitable and enjoys every part of school, even with an illness.
- A Dog Named "Dog":
- The virus is named Virus and the protozoa is named Protozoa.
- Downplayed for the bacterium, who is named Bacteria, which is the plural.
- Dwindling Party: As the story progresses, more and more people catch Simon's cold, and by the end, Simon is one of very few people left in school.
- Formally-Named Pet: The chinchilla is named Mr. Warbles.
- Green Around the Gills:
- One student has a yellowish-green face when he sees Simon vomit on the bus.
- When Simon is visualising what the germs are telling him, he imagines one infected girl with a green face.
- Here We Go Again!: The last page has another sick student come into school.
- Infection Scene:
- When Simon kisses his family good morning, they're shown to have caught his cold subsequently.
- Simon sneezes out a copious amount of snot in math class, and later, it's shown that four of his classmates have caught his cold. Later, the rest of his class (except one) and his teacher catch colds, but it's unclear when they caught them.
- When Simon feeds Mr. Warbles, a drop of snot drips onto the food. When Mr. Warbles is next seen, he's sick.
- Instant Illness: Simon's parents and sister catch his disease directly after he kisses them.
- Monstrous Germs: The germs are portrayed as grotesque blobs and they can talk.
- No Full Name Given: Simon's last name is never revealed. The same goes for Ms. Slowinski's first name.
- No Name Given: Simon's classmates, substitute teacher, dog, and sister are unnamed.
- Noodle Incident: What Simon currently has is (apparently) a cold, but on the statue the germs made of him, hailing him as a "germ hero", he's seen wearing medals labelled "pink eye", "chicken pox", "flu", and "ear infection", indicating that he once had those diseases and spread them.
- Out Sick: On Thursday, the teacher Ms. Slowinski, who caught Simon's cold, is not teaching.
- The Pollyanna: Simon is still excited for school and has fun on the bus despite being sick and in the latter case throwing up.
- Sick Episode: What do you think the title's for?
- Sickness Equals Redness: Simon has a very red nose while he's sick (and by extension, so does everyone who catches his cold).
- Unnamed Parent: Simon's parents are never given names.
- Unsound Effect: This book features a few "sound effects" that aren't onomatopoeic, such as "barf", "hack", and "cough".
- Vomit Discretion Shot: Early in the book, Simon vomits out the bus window, which covers the grisly mess.
- Working Through the Cold: Simon still goes to school despite his disease because A.) he enjoys school and B.) He doesn't realise that he's infecting his school mates.
