Staff Review: "Liar & Spy" by Rebecca Stead

How painful can seventh grade be? If your former best friend continues to ignore you to hang out with the cool kids, your dad loses his job,  and you have to sell your house and move into an apartment, it's pretty rough. In "Liar & Spy" by Rebecca Stead, Georges is just trying to get by  he goes to a meeting of the Spy Club in his new apartment building. There he meets Safer, a home-schooled expert on pigeons, dog-walking, and spying. Along with his little sister Candy, Safer begins to tutor Georges in the art of spying. There is a mysterious man in black who always comes and goes from his apartment with a suitcase, and the boys are going to find out why. But is that the only mystery here? Why does Safer never leave the building? Why doesn't Georges ever actually talk to his mom? And who put the cool kids in charge anyway?

A funny and serious book at the same time, Newbery Award Winning Rebecca Stead introduces us to a cast of delightful and confusing characters. There's Bob English Who Draws with his passion for phonetic spelling, cheeky Candy who keeps her big brothers in line, and a gym teacher who secretly loves her job. But mostly there's every-boy Georges just trying to figure it all out. Stead's characters and interactions felt very real to me, as if I could sit down and have a slice of pizza with Georges' family and a it wouldn't be weird. The mysteries were pretty easy to unravel before the end, and the plot itself felt a little slow, but the writing itself is delightful. I suggest that people who enjoy mysteries, stories about every-day life, or character-driven books will like "Liar & Spy." 

 Recommended for readers in grades 5-8.

--Andrea W., H.Q.