I loved the style of writing in this book. It is cheery, friendly and comical. When seventh grader Georges (the s is silent) moves into a Brooklyn apartment building, he meets Safer, a twelve-year-old coffee-drinking loner and self-appointed spy.Georges becomes Safer's first spy recruit. His assignment? Tracking the mysterious Mr. X, who lives in the apartment upstairs. But as Safer becomes more demanding, Georges starts to wonder: how far is too far to go for your only friend? Liar & Spy is an inspired, often-funny story about destiny, goofy brilliance, and courage. "Georges has it pretty good, but then his best friend becomes a skater who hangs with the bullies who make Georges their target; his dad gets fired; his mom has to work extra shifts; and they have to sell their house. The new apartment does not measure up, until Georges sees a sign advertising the Spy Club. This leads him to Safer, who promises to train Georges to be a spy and enlists him to help scope out the building's possibly murderous man in black. Georges is unsure about being a spy, but is also unsure about how to deal with the bullies at school, whether the taste lab will determine he is, in fact, a geeksack, and, most importantly, whether Safer is really all he seems. Stead's vibrant, fully actualized characters—determined Georges; his earnest, hopeful father; the mysterious, damaged Safer; Dallas the jeering bully; enigmatic Bob English Who Draws—elevate this coming-of-age story from typical middle-school angst to a truly quirky, memorable piece. The seemingly insignificant minutiae of Georges' daily life—the anatomy of the tongue, escaped parrots, Ben Franklin's Rules for Spelling—achieve symbolic significance as they lead Georges to a place where he can face the looming loss he spends most of the novel avoiding. All the pieces come together in a magnificent twist at the end, reinforcing the message that all obstacles can be overcome. Young readers will see themselves in Georges's frustrations, and celebrate and be inspired by his victories over his tormentors—and himself." |