Liar & Spy

This was such a treat, and I'm grateful to Random House for sending me a review copy. I liked this one better than When You Reach Me. I found it easier to follow and more entertaining.

The message in this story is subtle, and it's just as valuable for grown-ups as it is for youngsters. What Georges learns is that sometimes when people lie and misrepresent themselves, they do it out of fear and shame, not because they are bad people. And sometimes we lie to ourselves for the same reasons. The truth is just too scary or painful. If we let the truth come out, we just might find that people want to help us, not reject us.

Even if you care nothing at all about the message, the story is just plain fun to read. The plot is fairly basic. Rebecca show more Stead makes it fun, and funny, by including all the strange character traits and habits that make people memorable.

Georges has moved from a house he loves into an apartment he's not too thrilled about. He meets a new friend there named Safer, who ropes him into some activities he doesn't feel good about. Georges has to learn to stand up to Safer and say no. Meanwhile, he also learns to make a stand against the kids who pick on him at school.

I really enjoyed Georges as a narrator and character. He's one of those nerdy kids that grown-ups always like and peers always tease. He's smart, but he has an earnest cluelessness that sometimes made me laugh out loud.
Recommended for middle-grade readers of both sexes, and grown-ups, too. show less

Rebecca Stead’s Liar & Spy proves a very different book than her more famous Newbery Award-winning When You Reach Me, but it is, in some ways, even more engrossing, with its own twists and turns.

Georges — our hero is named after the pointillist Georges Seurat — finds his word turned upside-down. With his father’s loss of his job, the family sell their house in Brooklyn and move into a nearby apartment. Mom Sara, a nurse, has to take double shifts to make ends meet, while dad Martin tries to launch his own business. Georges’ old friend Jason has moved on to cooler friends, including bullies Dallas Llewellyn and Carter Dixon. Georges’ life seems one unhappy mess.

Until he meets Safer, an odd, homeschooled boy who lives in the show more same apartment house. Safer and his sister Candy spend their time spying on their neighbors, especially the eternally black-clad Mr. X, who lives one floor above Georges. Against his will, Georges gets drawn into this thrilling espionage. To tell any more would be to ruin this book’s surprise denouement, but I thoroughly enjoyed every thrilling moment in what, ironically, proves a very thoughtful book. show less

Georges is in the 7th grade, and is facing a year of tough times and difficult transitions. His best friend Jason has inexplicably dumped him in favor of the cool crowd, which has made Georges (whom they call Gorgeous) the target of their bullying ("Here's a piece of advice you will probably never use: if you want to name your son after Georges Seurat, you could call him George, without the S. Just to make life easier."). The book begins as Georges's family sells their beloved Brooklyn home and moves into an apartment following his dad's layoff. Georges's mother must now work double shifts at the hospital to support the family, and her only interactions with Georges throughout the book are the short messages they write to each other on show more Georges's desk in Scrabble tiles. On the day they move into their apartment he meets Safer, a strange boy his own age who decides to train Georges to be a spy.

Safer recruits Georges to help him spy on the building's mysterious Mr. X, whose comings and and goings from the building carrying suitcases probably means he's disposing victims. Safer's surveillance becomes more risky and intrusive, and Georges must decide how far he should go to support his only friend.

Looking over this review, this is a bizarre premise for a book, but it works. Ms. Stead's characters are strong and well-drawn in all their quirky habits and personalities, and the bonds formed by lonely kids in desperate need of friends are touching and poignant. I really enjoyed it, and will be reading Ms. Stead's highly recommended When You Reach Me later this year... maybe aloud?

Stead, R. (2012). Liar & spy. New York: Wendy Lamb Books. show less

I wasn't as head-over-heels as everyone else for When You Reach Me, but I wholeheartedly enjoyed Liar & Spy. I did spot the twist about halfway through, though the reveal doesn't come until near the end, but that didn't lessen my enjoyment.

Georges, a middle school boy named after the painter Georges Seurat, has just moved from a house to an apartment. His father lost his job, and his mother, a nurse, spends so much time at the hospital that he doesn't see her: they communicate by spelling out short messages with Scrabble tiles. At school, Georges is friendless and picked on; he makes friends with another boy in his apartment building, Safer, and his little sister Candy. Safer is engaged in spying on one of their neighbors, who he calls show more Mr. X, and he ropes Georges in as well. Meanwhile, Georges' classmate Bob English Who Draws suggests a way for Georges to get back at the popular kids who are bullying him.

Set in New York City like When You Reach Me, Liar & Spy is an engaging read, full of interesting yet realistic characters. Stead captures that in-between time: the characters are part child still, not fully teenager and a long way from being adult, but they are far from simple. It reminds you how powerful the imagination is, how much can flow under the adult radar of parents and teachers.

Quotes:

Or maybe it's just that, after lunch, the cafeteria doesn't have the smell of things to come. It's the smell of what has been. (3)

It's like the hard G and the soft G, is what I want to tell Bob. The hard G goes to school, and nothing can hurt him. And the soft G is the one who's talking to you right now. Except he's only talking in my head. I used to know which one was the real me, but now I'm not so sure. Now it's like maybe there is no real me. (111) show less

As young adult books get more accepted by old adults, the middle grade market is becoming the place to go for under-appreciated books that fabulously capture a time and place in our personal evolutions.

At first I was a bit leery of Liar & Spy: I wasn’t crazy about Stead’s previous book When You Reach Me, and I was afraid this one would be about bullying and/or family heartbreak, either one of which can make me run for cover. But actually, this turned out to be a super book about the triumph of a young boy who isn’t invited to the “cool table” in the cafeteria, but who manages to turn the tables and redefine “cool” in the absolute best way I can imagine.

Georges suffers for his name. The "s" is silent – he got his name show more from his parents’ love of the impressionist painter Georges Seurat – and he is often the butt of jokes and harassment. Yet he keeps it all in perspective, just like his mom encouraged him to do by teaching him about Seurat. Seurat was a pioneer in the post-impressionist technique of pointillism, using small dots of color to form images. The viewer is forced to blend the colors optically to see the picture. As Georges explains:

"Mom says that our Seurat poster reminds her to look at the big picture. Like when it hurts to think about selling the house, she tells herself how that bad feeling is just one dot in the giant Seurat painting of our lives.”

Georges is a veritable master of positive thinking, no matter what mind games he has to play to get there. What with his dad laid off, his mom working extra hours, having to sell their house and move into a small apartment, and being confronted by bullies at school, he has plenty of material with which to work. At first he thinks everything will be okay when he is practically adopted by his nice but eccentric new neighbors. But when the boy – Safer – who is Georges’s age, turns out to be not what he seems, Georges is at the end of his rope. He’s so sick of games!

Only after looking into his own heart and mind, reflected through the mirror of Safer and his kid sister Candy, does Georges come to realize that he has been focusing on the big picture so much he hasn’t paid enough attention to the dots. As his dad explains to him, the dots matter too! And Georges finally figures out a way to cope with it all. Because who says everyone has to be the same? Who says the status quo gets to decide what the rules should be? And who says zooming in to pay attention to details won’t help you get to that big picture in the long run?

Evaluation: The characterizations in this book are terrific. You won’t doubt for a moment the voices of the 12-year-olds, the 10-year-old, and even the adults in this heart-warming story. show less

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Georges was an authentic character for me, and I think a character that a lot of middle grade readers would relate to. There's a lot of creativity in how Georges solves his problems, which I found fun and clever. Safer's story was a bit of a letdown for me, though I did not see the twist coming. Bob English Who Draws gets the prize for the best name in the book! Because I read and loved "When You Reach Me" a few years ago, I was inevitably comparing this book to that one, and I think that "When You Reach Me" was better done. However, this for me was a pleasant, if not earth-shattering read, and one that I would recommend to a 5th or 6th grader.

Stead authentically inhabits the mind of a middle-grader in her newest novel for children. The premise -- a socially awkward boy moves into an apartment building with his family and meets a new friend, who is solidly odd -- is familiar for many readers, but used to good effect, and with some fresh twists, here. The novel becomes very much about perspective -- both the characters' and the reader's -- as we follow the stated events and attempt to follow what is not being said at the same time. The sense that what's not being said is even more important rises strongly throughout and, though many adults will have figured out most of what's left out, the intended middle-grade audience will likely enjoy the puzzle as it unfolds. With good show more humor as well as tenderness, and a climactic sequence that anyone who has ever been picked on will find deeply satisfying, this book works. That's a solid recommendation, in case you can't tell. :) show less