Just Watch Me is an adorable easy read. Though the writing style was simplistic, and for me took place in another country, Canada, the story had a wonderful message. The novel follows Simon and his classmates as they use a school appropriate video sharing site similar to YouTube in their technology class for a semester. The protagonist, Simon, an avid video gamer, grows immensely as a character throughout the novel. The other characters surrounding him show amazing growth as well for such a short novel. This was a quick read I would instantly recommend to any middle grade student struggling with who they are. Simon quickly learns his strengths in helping his classmates discover what they are passionate about to increase views on their video channels. He also learns to accept and laugh at himself through posting on his own channel and appearing on classmates’ channels. He also learns that everyone struggles though things may not seem that way to an outsider. And as Simon’s grandmother says toward the end of the novel, “You’ve come a long way.” As the reader follows Simon on this long journey for him, short for the reader (the book is only 130 pages long), hopefully they will learn as much as Simon did about acceptance of others and yourself.

My son wasn't into this one. It's cute, but it's not as good as we expected. I can't say it was bad, can't say it was amazing. It was only okay.

This was a fun (and funny!) middle grade novel. Erin Silver really captured the highs and lows of middle school: friendship, bullying, competition, triumph, familial problems, teamwork. I really loved how everyone came together at the end to work toward a common cause.

Firstly this book is so enjoyable ,Erin Silver is a talented writer .This book is enjoyable book to read and I can see my siblings enjoying it. I recommend it because not only does it address serious issues such as bullying and divorce it was quite enjoyable. Huge thanks to publisher for my copy in exchange of an honest review

Simon needs an A in his tech class so that he can go to a gamer's contest and convince his parents to stay together. Even though he is a straight-A student, the problem is the VideoKids assignments where he has to create videos that are engaging and appropriate for social media. The point of the assignment is teach kids to use social media appropriately. As Simon struggles to find engaging content to talk about, he keeps accidentally recording and submitting accidental videos of embarrassing situations: the dog chewing on his mother's underwear, the explosive diarrhea incident after he drinks a Frappuccino (he is lactose intolerant), and when he is trying to learn to kiss a girl because of his interest in his best friend, Jocelyn, who he wants to be more than best friends with.

Simon not only learns the power of social media, but makes new friends, confronts bullies, and learns the value of a best friends.

Quick, funny read; kids will be able to relate to the embarrassing events, and see that sometimes it makes you "real" and learning to laugh at yourself is sometimes the easiest way to make new friends.

I read ‘Just Watch Me’ really quickly, probably because it is a middle grade novel. From the synopsis of this book, I was looking forward to it, as it is about a kid who loves video games and he has to partake in a school project which involves the students making online videos in order to create the best online content for other students in the school to enjoy.

There were a few things I did like about this book. I liked how the whole story was easy to read and how even though the book was really short, the story did not feel rushed. I also liked Jocelyn’s character as she was a strong female character who stood up to the bullies and was a good friend to Simon even when he was being a rubbish friend to her.

Simon’s character was not my favourite and I did not really care about him. This is probably because this book and his character are aimed at young children and so I am not the target audience for the book. The humour in this book is definitely aimed at young children and I am sure they would laugh at all the jokes and all of the embarrassing things that happen to Simon throughout this book.

‘Just Watch Me’ was not a bad book, it simply was not a book for me, probably because it is aimed at younger children and I am not the target audience for it. That being said, there were still a few aspects of this book that I did like overall.

This book gives an interesting look inside the world of online communities and how children and teens interact with those communities. This is an interesting read and I think one that many kids can relate to. I like that technology is explored in a positive way and I enjoyed the relationships and their growth in this book. I think it is great for MG audiences.

Thank you so much to net galley for sending me a copy of this book. I wasn’t really knowing what to expect going into this book but I fell in love with it and would recommend it to adults even!

Simon is a 12-year-old boy who loves gaming and is very good at it. His parents have said that if he gets straight As, he can go to Vancouver, (the city where his parents fell in love) and participate in the Video Game Championships. This is very important to him because his parents are fighting. A LOT. And he is certain that if he can just get them to Vancouver, they will remember why they fell in love. So he must ace this class project where he has to video tape himself and get lots of "likes" and "follows" in order to get an A. However things are always going embarrassingly wrong. While I enjoyed this book, I had trouble really connecting to the characters and the plot lacked depth. Thanks to NetGalley for the EARC.

Simon loves video games but hates his parents arguing. He’s won a competition and his parents have promised that if he gets all As this year, they’ll take him to Vancouver for the competition finals. He’s secretly hoping that a visit to the city where they met and fell in love will repair their relationship.

The class he struggles with most is tech class, in which they have been asked to post videos to the school’s social media channel. But what on earth can Simon include in his videos? None of his videos work according to plan but the hilariously embarrassing results are appreciated by his classmates.

The book also tackles bullying, overcoming a lack of self confidence and divorce. Simon also experiences his first crush. Without this, the storyline would probably appeal to children aged 8 upwards, but the inclusion of the romantic element would suggest the author had an older audience in mind, but I am not sure whether the rest of the content is mature enough to work alongside this.

This is one of those books where the protagonist is having problems in his life, but that when viewed form the outside, accidentally caught on video, endure people to him, and think that he is staging the incidents.

Until his beating by the local bullies brings everyone together to see that some things are not staged.

It is a cute enough story, using a YouTube like live streaming so the kids learn about how to use social media to "engage" with others.

Simon is being bullied, throughout all this, by two neighborhood children that are doing so, it is implied, because they themselves are being mistreated, but that is never fully addressed in the book.

There are a lot of things glossed over.

But for a quick read about social media and bullying, and how that is solved, it is an enjoyable enough book.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was really excited to pick up "Just Watch Me!" by Erin Silver. To be completely honest, that was mainly because of the fact that one of my best friends illustrated the cover. But I was also intrigued by the synopsis. "Just Watch Me!" follows a boy in seventh grade who is dealing with a difficult project in tech class, his parents fighting all the time and on the brink of divorce, and your typical middle-school awkwardness. He is also a big video game player who got invited to participate in the Canadian championships, and he thinks if he's able to get there that that will make his parents fall in love again. I have previously loved many middle-grade stories, and I was delighted to pick up a story about another young kid experiencing the trials and tribulations of growing up.
I ended up enjoying a few things in this book. For one, it was cool to see a story take place in my home country of Canada. There were names of places that the main character mentioned and it was fun to know what he was talking about. I also really enjoyed the secondary character of Jocelyn, his best friend. I thought her story was unique and an important aspect of this book, as she was a tenacious girl in MMA training. Lastly, I found the comedy to be amusing. Of course, it is aimed towards a young audience so I wasn't splitting my stomach laughing, but the jokes were appreciated. However, that was unfortunately the extent of my enjoyment for this book.
I found there to be many issues with this story, and it really hindered my overall reading experience. I understand that it is written for a young audience, but as I've mentioned, I've previously read and really loved middle-grade books in the past. Unfortunately I found the writing of this story to be incredibly plain and simplistic, and it almost felt like a young kid wrote it. Now this could have been the intention of the author since it is in first-person perspective from the main character. However, there were sentences that were sometimes very jarring and repetitive, and I believe the young-sounding voice could have still been achieved with just a bit more editing. Furthermore, the main plot twist in the book was infuriatingly unrealistic, and I just couldn't suspend my disbelief to accept it. I have no problems with stories that push the boundaries of realism in a contemporary setting, but there is just no way that this plot twist would have happened, and it further contributed to the feeling of childish writing.
Additionally, there were a couple of problems I had with the characters in this book, mainly with how the only explicit characters of colour were written. Jocelyn's family are immigrants to Canada and it was said that her mom is a nanny, and her dad is janitor. Meanwhile the main character's parents (who I believe are white) are a nurse and a social worker. I just really didn't appreciate that the only characters who are explicitly not white were given stereotypical, "low-skill" jobs. There is also a scene in the book where the main character's family is having dinner with Jocelyn's family, who are then villainized by demanding better grades of her or they will take away her extracurricular activities. The main character's parents also posed this idea to their son (he needs all A's in order to attend the video game competition), but it was never made a big deal that made other families feel uncomfortable, while this was the case with Jocelyn's family in this scene. I think instead of contributing to these harmful stereotypes (the jobs and controlling parenting), it would have been powerful for Jocelyn's family to be written differently.
Of course, the fact that I am almost 21-years old and reading a book written for a middle-grade audience is a factor to how I would perceive certain things in this book. However, to me, middle-grade works best when it can transcend age, and I just don't think that was the case for this book. So unfortunately my rating is 2/5 stars. I am unsure of whether I would recommend this book for kids just because of the harmful stereotypes portrayed, but I believe if you look past that, it could be a good story about finding confidence in yourself, being a good friend, and not only surviving but thriving through the trying times of middle school.

In the age of tiktok and youtube stars, the premise of having a school project revolving around social media is something my students would find enticing. Simon is a likable guy, especially since he has a habit of embarrassing himself publicly for all his classmates to enjoy. The plot flows and though all Simon's "accidents" are a bit incredible, the relationship of his parents, are all too believable for some of my students. Overall, an enjoyable read that my students could relate to.

Just Watch Me! is an engaging and relevant read about navigating friendships and the often tricky world of social media. It's a book that while aimed at middle grade, can be enjoyed by any age.

Erin Silver's book Just Watch Me! is a well written story that is woven with humour and wit. The characters are so believable and loveable. The modern idea that the characters' teacher gives the students of livestreaming a video is so relevant to today's online world making the scenes believable and relateable. The connection between Simon and Jocelyn is so endearing , wanting me to read more. Crossing my fingers that a sequel will come out soon!