To me this book felt very much like other books that have been written before. Basically Timothy messes up again and again, and the story is told in apology letters after the mistakes. At the end the family got together and showed their affection despite Timothy's mistakes. This story has been told in other ways by other authors. I didn't feel that this book brought anything new to the concept. Will not be purchasing. If your library does not own any books similar to this it might be worth checking out for purchase.

A laugh-out-loud story about dealing with the consequences of our actions. The text is told mainly through the letters of apology Timothy's father makes him write after various mishaps, primarily caused by Timothy doing things without thinking them through. Timothy's not a bad kid, sometimes he's even trying to help, like when he adds a bird to his sister's painting of a tree; he really liked the painting, and thought the tree would look good with a bird in it, that's all. When he accidentally ruins his sisters' ballet recital by jumping onstage to try and help the dancers after mistakenly throwing marbles on the stage (he was trying to copy their moves and forgot he was holding the marbles), tearing one of his sister's tutus while trying to lift her up), he realizes he's gone to far. His heartfelt attempt to make things right at the end is very sweet, if messy. This is a very funny and relatable story - don't we all screw up at times? - with charming illustrations that can start conversations about thinking before doing, and dealing with the consequences of one's actions, including making apologies.

#TheSorryLifeofTimothyShmoe #NetGalley

Timothy is a bit of an accident waiting to happen. He leaves a small trail of chaos wherever he goes. Some events are truly accidents; others are Timothy not really thinking things through before he acts. The book really stresses the importance of thinking about the consequences of an action BEFORE it is taken - in a humorous way. I also like that Timothy's family made him write apology notes to everyone - whether his actions were intentional, thoughtless, or accidental. Timothy begins to think that no one could love a kid who causes so much chaos but his father assures him that will never be the case.
So this is a silly, sweet book that will resonate with many parents and quite a few accident prone, impulsive kids. If your kids have enjoyed David Shannon's "No, David!", give this one a try!

Many thanks to the publisher for an e-galley!

A really cute book humorously looking at a number of different 'opportunities' for this little guy to offer his apologies! He's cute, his family is cute, the drawings are cute.....it'd be a fun book to read to or share with a kid.....as with many books.....it might offer some conversation with your little one! It's got my vote.....it's a good fun book!
I received an e-copy of the book from Owlkids Books via NetGalley, in return for reading it & posting my own fair/honest review.

I really, really, want to like this book. It is epistolary meaning it’s told through letters. These are all apology letters for something Timothy has done, either on purpose, or by accident. I think the reason that I am not as fond of this book as I could be, is because some of the letters are cheeky or almost rude. Like, I apologize, but you made it worse, appears in over half the letters. I get the point of the book and the ending does make it worth it, but overall, I have seen this done better.

This is the sort of book that tends to work better in theory than in practice, that the adult reader appreciates more than the child listener. We see the assorted things that Timothy has to apologize for, his degrees of intention, and the degrees of "sorry" that he actually feels.

The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe is an odd book, but I liked it. Some of the wording on the notes is a bit repetitive: the cat screaming, grannie screaming etc. I think the premise is a good one, but I think this could be a conversation about consent and respect as well.

Oh Timothy.... This is honestly a good starter discussion on writing proper apology letters. Cute illustrations and a cute story should keep kids entertained.

I received an electronic ARC from Owlkids Books through NetGalley.
Timothy approaches life with energy and enthusiasm - sometimes too much energy and enthusiasm. This causes accidents and consequences he doesn't think through. So, he has to write apology letters to those involved. Readers will laugh their way through these letters where he is completely honest in what he says.
McLellan captures the reality of life with an energetic child. They move at a fast pace and often trigger incidents that create havoc. The letters' tone perfectly recreates how a child would feel in each circumstance. The illustrations add to the fun and show readers more details about what happened before the letters were written.
Love the ending as this too is realistic when Timothy tries to fix his mistakes.

“The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe” by Stephanie Simpson McClellan is a book every child therapist needs on their shelf ASAP! In Timothy, I see the faces of so many former clients, and perhaps...ahem...a certain boy who lives in my house. Timothy is impulsive and chaos ensues wherever he goes. The poor guy doesn’t intend to break items in the house, make catastrophic messes, or leave Grandma’s wheelchair facing the corner. Like so many of our favorite little knuckleheads, he acts before thinking through the consequences. With each destructive act, he writes a sincere apology to whomever he has wronged and his letters are truly from the heart. Despite all the catastrophes Timothy causes, his parents remind him, also through a sweet letter, that there is nothing he can do to separate himself from their love. Children need to hear this message. Heck! We ALL need to hear this message! Children with behavioral outbursts, impulsivity, and precocious curiosity, are especially prone to feeling unloved and as though they are bad.

I have a disclosure to make. Earlier in the day, my 7 year old son decided to make himself a bowl of cereal while I was on a zoom call. Chaos ensued. I walked into the kitchen to find my own “Timothy Shmoe” standing before a box of spilled cereal that he had stomped into smaller flakes to “make sweeping the mess easier.” Stomped and ground into the kitchen rug… This came shortly after he had taken his school laptop on a walk around our very messy house and turned the camera towards me so his teacher and classmates could view me in my pajamas!? When I saw the cereal mess, I groaned dramatically, hollered that he had to clean his mess in 5 minutes “or else”, and stomped to my room...to ironically, read and review this book. Wow, karma, wow!? I clearly needed this book today and the reminder that he probably needed my affirmation today even more.

So many of the parents we work with in therapy are in need of this reminder too. Parenting is H.A.R.D. and parenting kids with difficult behaviors often makes us feel inferior, ill equipped, embarrassed, and as though we’ve failed. “The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe” is a beautiful reminder that even in the most ugly catastrophes, there are opportunities for love and nurturing affirmations.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to provide this honest review!

This picture book explores some of the missteps taken by Timothy largely through the apology letters his father has him write after each incident. I enjoyed the premise of exploring misbehavior and the importance of a sincere apology, as well as the message that no matter your behaviour your parents will still love you. I'd have liked to see more growth in Timothy's character.

Thank you to Net Galley and OwlKids Books for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You know those days, where you feel like you can’t do anything right. In The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe by Stephanie Simpson McLellan and Zoe Si, Timothy doesn’t seem like he can ever do right his whole life. He is constantly having to write apology notes, to his dad, his Aunt, his sisters and the list goes on. He just seems to always be in trouble. For as much trouble as Timothy getsin, his family loves him, no matter what.

The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe is a funny story, written in a series of apology notes written by Timothy. He certainly shows remorse for the things he does and it is clear that he doesn't get into trouble because of any malice, just a series of poor decisions. So many children will identify with the making of not great decisions because this is where we are doing the most testing, learning and figuring out limits.

Zoe Si’s illustrations add to the humour of the story! I particularly love the illustration at the dance recital and mom and dad’s frazzled looks. I enjoyed how all of the adults in the story never look mad, they look tired and frazzled but never so mad at Timothy that you don’t still know they love him no matter what.

I really liked how this book was able to explore lots of emotions that a child will be experiencing & how it encourages expressing those emotions & writing it out through letters. I also enjoyed how a lot of Timmys actions were silly kid stuff that as parents we so see from time time making if this relatable & a book that we could easily read as a family. My only downside was the final letter when Timmy wishes he wasn’t being but with that being said it was addressed with compassion by dads follow up letter.

“The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe” by Stephanie Simpson McLellan, illustrated by Zoe Si, and published by Owl Kids Publishing was one of my latest picture book reads. Timothy is very impulsive. Because of this he makes a lot of “mistakes.” After his mistakes, he apologizes, but seems to keep messing up. After one big mess up he realizes he may have just gone too far and writes a letter to his dad questioning whether or not it would have been better if he hadn’t been born. His dad shows him unconditional love, forgiveness, and acceptance in reply. We all mess up sometimes. It’s nice to know things can still be ok.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The cover is cute! Simple, but eye-catching. Gets the job done.

This was one of the books my kids and I read as a family.
We loved it.
The graphics / illustrations are not too bad.
The storyline is cute.

I'll definitely be looking out for other work by this author.

Timothy Shmoe is a kid who seems to always find himself in trouble. This idea results in him having to write a lot of apology notes. The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe is a story that develops with the utilization of Timothy's apology notes. I thought this made the story unique and allowed Timothy's personality to shine through. There were some growth and change in Timothy at the end of the story. I would have loved to see that grown a bit more.

This book was received as an ARC from Owlkids Books in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I absolutely loved this book. It was relevant, relatable and adorable all at once. A lot of our community members will appreciate this book and it should definitely be in every elementary school, daycare and library. I also loved the positive approach Stephanie Simpson McLellan took while writing this book and how important it is to apologize and forgive and how everything will be ok which is what we really need especially this time of year. We will definitely share this with our elementary teachers and I know this book will circulate well in our library and even be a potential story time book.

We will consider adding this title to our Picture Book collection at our library. That is why we give this book will give you 5 stars.

Thank you Owlkids Books and NetGalley for the advance digital reading copy of this book.

This was a fun book that had Timothy getting into a lot of interesting situations that he was forced to apologize for later. I love the illustrations; it was fun watching all of Timothy's letters played out in images.

Timothy seems to get in trouble a lot. His Dad makes him write an apology letter every time. I think that children will enjoy this book, but caregivers definitely need to chime in on what is being portrayed. Timothy does a lot of saying 'I'm sorry, but...' This is a good opportunity for parents to discuss with their children about truly being sorry, sincerely apologizing, and taking responsibility for one's actions (as Timothy's father expects with each apology letter written).

Thank you to Net Galley for this eARC.

Eh. This picture book is mildly humorous and delivers a nice "your parents will always love you" message at the end (actually, just the dad technically says so), but I didn't find Timothy as funny as everyone else seemed to. Throughout the book he does one bad thing after another and then writes one apology letter after another. These often come off as insincere and like he's still trying to be funny. He breaks things, ruins activities, etc. on and on and on. Most of the time it's not accidents but just being inconsiderate or mischievous. He shoots marbles during his sister's ballet performance and ruins it, he lets great grandma roll in her wheelchair into the corner and then apparently doesn't know that her screams mean she's frightened and not happy (Timothy is apparently incredibly stupid), he sprays his gardening mother with the hose, he breaks things by being rough indoors, etc. He never seems to learn and never seems honestly sorry. He also is awful to the cat -- pulling her tail and trying to ride her like a horse. That's not funny to me, and no child old enough to write has any business ever intentionally harming an animal, whether that animal scratched him first or not.

I get that it's just trying to be funny and the message is that even if you make your family mad they'll always love you. This one fell a little flat for me. I changed my rating from 2 to 3 stars and back again several times and finally decided on 3. I really wish he'd shown more heart, though. My younger son definitely got himself into this kind of predicament often throughout the years (and still does) but he's always genuinely sorry and cares. Timothy could use a bit more of that.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.