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John M. Simmons

Goodreads Author

Born

in Salt Lake City, The United States

Website

http://johnmsimmons.com

Genre

Memoir, Psychology, Self Help

Member Since

March 2010

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John M. Simmons is the award-winning author of To Sing Frogs, the true story of adopting five children out of Russian orphanages, and the family that came out the other side. Beneath the struggle of raising children who arrived from harsh beginnings, the book quietly lays out something else: evidence that nurture can reshape nature. His next book, Happy Like Coach Jack, comes out in September 2026. It's the true story of his son, a young man with Down syndrome who became an assistant coach for a youth baseball team, and how a whole community rearranged itself around him in the process. It's funny. It's tender. And, subtly, it becomes the evidential backdrop to something larger: that happiness comes first, not as a reward for healing, but as John M. Simmons is the award-winning author of To Sing Frogs, the true story of adopting five children out of Russian orphanages, and the family that came out the other side. Beneath the struggle of raising children who arrived from harsh beginnings, the book quietly lays out something else: evidence that nurture can reshape nature. His next book, Happy Like Coach Jack, comes out in September 2026. It's the true story of his son, a young man with Down syndrome who became an assistant coach for a youth baseball team, and how a whole community rearranged itself around him in the process. It's funny. It's tender. And, subtly, it becomes the evidential backdrop to something larger: that happiness comes first, not as a reward for healing, but as what actually makes healing possible.

Simmons spent years running a manufacturing company that won Utah's Best of State Manufacturing Award. Later, the family sold the company and Simmons went back to school. He wasn't chasing credentials or a career. He was seeking answers. He earned a BA in Psychology, summa cum laude, with departmental honors and a minor in neuroscience. He was also named Outstanding Graduate of the Psychology Department. The questions he went looking for came from his own kitchen table.

He and his wife, Amy, have three biological children and six who were adopted. Several of the adopted children were diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder, and the years that followed taught Simmons more about biology, adaptation, and belonging than any classroom ever could have. That education, formal and otherwise, is now the foundation for everything he writes.

Jack, one of his children, has Down syndrome and is now an assistant coach for a youth baseball team in St. George, Utah. Readers of Simmons' blog know him as Coach Jack — and this new book is entirely his story.

For more than a decade, Simmons also served as chairman of the board of an NGO in the country of Georgia, working directly with orphaned teenagers — preparing them for university entrance exams and supporting them through the years that followed.

He lives in St. George, Utah, with Amy, at Coach Jack's house.
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664 posts
John M. Simmons's Blog

You Were Wired That Way

In the beginning there was — synaptogenesis. Dear old plain-spoken Grandpa would have asked why they just didn’t call it what it was: “Connectin’ nerves t’gether and trimmin’ ‘em, like bushes.” Scientists preferred to call the nerves “neurons,” the connections “synapses,” and the subsequent removal of about half of them…

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Published on September 08, 2026 02:07

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Combine Editions
John M. Simmons’s books

Average rating: 3.98 · 269 ratings · 114 reviews · 11 distinct works

	The Marvelous Journey Home 3.73 avg rating — 139 ratings — published 2006 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	To Sing Frogs 4.27 avg rating — 74 ratings — published 2003 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nor Doth He Sleep 4.22 avg rating — 54 ratings — published 2013 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Happy Like Coach Jack: The Story of a Baseball Coach with Down Syndrome really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2026 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	To Sing Frogs 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	To Sing Frogs 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	To Sing Frogs: A True Story About Miracles, And People Who Aren't Sure They Believe In Them 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nor Doth He Sleep: Neither God Nor Children Accept Impossible 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Marvelous Journey Home: An adoption story - about going home 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nor Doth He Sleep: Neither God Nor Children Accept Impossible 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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John M. Simmons wrote a new blog post Emotional Trauma To me, the Piaget family is one of the most touching scientific observational and documentation projects ever accomplished.
Sep 08, 2026 02:07AM · like

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Quotes by John M. Simmons (?)

“Friends come into our lives and friends leave our lives. But friends never leave our hearts. And best friends always get to stay in the best places in our hearts.”
― John M. Simmons, The Marvelous Journey Home

tags: friends, friendship, remembrance

44 likes

“Orphanages are the only places that ever left me feeling empty and full at the same time.”
― John M. Simmons

tags: adoption, orphanage, orphans

16 likes

“I love Russia because Russia gave me you.”
― John M. Simmons, To Sing Frogs

tags: adoption, love, russia

6 likes

See all John M. Simmons's quotes »

John’s Quotes

“The fear o’ hell’s a hangman’s whip to haud the wretch in order; But where ye feel your honor grip, let that aye be your border.”
― Robert Burns

tags: integrity

5 likes

“You don't have to walk on water, it's how you walk on land.”
― Jason Crabb

tags: integrity

3 likes

“He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave.”
― Andrew Carnegie

60 likes

“Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as by the abuses of power.”
― James Madison, Federalist Papers By James Madison: Federalist No. 10, Federalist No. 45, Federalist No. 51, Federalist No. 44, Federalist No. 47

tags: abuse, liberty

21 likes

“Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.”
― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson