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Liar and Spy

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 · rating details · 4,855 ratings · 1,096 reviews

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 fa...more

Hardcover, 180 pages

Published August 7th 2012 by Wendy Lamb Books (first published 2012)

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Sep 24, 2012 Cara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, e-book, male-protagonist, realistic-fiction, to-review

Why wasn't this author around when I was a kid? Goodness some people get all the luck. Review later.

6 likes · like · see review

Aug 18, 2012 Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-fiction, four-star-fiction, for-the-munchkins

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 tru...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Destinee Sutton rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-grade, guy-reads, everyday-life, bullies, tween

The theme I took away from this book is the difference between seeing the little dots and seeing the big picture. It was very cleverly explored in lots of ways: Georges Seurat's painting, how to deal with bullies, differences in the perspectives of Georges and Safer, an almost out of nowhere plot twist, and finally the dots on the hands (which is only a cryptic spoiler).

Rebecca Stead again writes with heart, curiosity, and intelligence. For me, this book lacked the wow factor of When You Reach ...more

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Feb 04, 2013 Nana S. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Currently I am reading a book called Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead. The book is about a seventh grader named Georges (the s is silent) who has a lot of problems. He's having trouble with some boys at school, his dad lost his job and so his mom has started working all the time, and they had to sell their house and move into an apartment. But moving into a new apartment does bring one good thing. An unusual boy who lives on the top floor named Safer. He runs a spy club, and is eager to teach Georg...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Tami rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-realistic-fiction

I LOVED this book! This is one of those rare books in which the ending is elevated beyond simply satisfying the plot. It brings the reader to an entirely new level of insight with Georges, the main character.

I appreciated the depth of development in Georges' character: his affinity for Georges Seurat's work (the 19th-century French artist for whom he is named)--especially pointillisme, his determination to look beyond the unpleasant treatment he receives at school at the hands of bullies, his lo...more I LOVED this book! This is one of those rare books in which the ending is elevated beyond simply satisfying the plot. It brings the reader to an entirely new level of insight with Georges, the main character.

I appreciated the depth of development in Georges' character: his affinity for Georges Seurat's work (the 19th-century French artist for whom he is named)--especially pointillisme, his determination to look beyond the unpleasant treatment he receives at school at the hands of bullies, his loneliness, his distinct values of honesty and kindness, his technique of watching America's Funniest Videos to take himself out of a depressed space are all vivid, effective characteristics which give the reader a fully formed impression of who Georges is. Each of these characteristics binds the reader a little closer to Georges as we see shades of our fears in him, each element causing us to willingly invest more of ourselves in Georges and his story.

When Georges and his family are forced--due to finances--to sell a house they love and move to an apartment building nearby Georges meets Safer, a boy his own age who also lives in the apartment building with his parents, brother and sister.

Georges and Safer--with intermittent interruptions from Safer's younger sister, Candy--are engaged in "spying" on Mr. X. Mr. X is another resident of the building who Safer claims to have been observing for some time. A man who dresses in black and carries a lot of large suitcases back and forth, Mr. X is the object of their reconnaissance missions and their various suspicions.

Events at school with a couple of bullies are also accelerating for Georges. As these come to a head Georges has a breakthrough in his surveillance surrounding Mr. X. This revelation causes Georges to call everything in his life into question.

Small lies and huge lies, those that are harmless and those that have the potential to change the course of Georges' life all come spilling out for the stunned reader. The depth and breadth of the lies others tell Georges and those he tells himself converge for him in a shattering moment. The resolution going forward from this moment is more than satisfying for Georges and for the reader.

This book could be an excellent read-aloud--although I will caution parents & teachers that there are 2 brief moments where a mild cuss word is used (personally, I would just skip over it in a read-aloud situation since the absence of the word itself detracts nothing from the story--it's used in a bully scene and many others can be substituted).

Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me won the 2010 Newberry Medal but as far as I'm concerned, Liar & Spy FAR outstrips that work in content and accessibility to its readers. THIS one deserves a Newberry!
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Nov 03, 2012 Scott Pilgrim rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, random-buzzers, must-read-2012

Find this review @ Scott Reads It
Liar & Spy really surprised me in every single way. First of all, I usually don't read middle-school books at all because they don't interest me like YA novels do. Second, I don't usually read realistic fiction because in my opinion reality is too ordinary and boring to read about. I went against my reader instinct when I picked up Liar & Spy but I'm happy I did.

I really would like to thank Random House for providing me with an advanced reader copy, in ex...more

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Sep 22, 2012 Lisa Vegan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: both sexes ages 9-13 & all the way up, readers who enjoy quirky characters & big issues

Shelves: fiction, childrens, novel, reviewed, young-adult

Oh, how I’d have loved this one at ages 9 and 10, and if my life had been slightly different at 11, 12, and 13 too, and even then I still would have loved it, as I do now. I didn’t like it as much as When You Reach Me, but since that made both my favorites and favorite-time-travel-books shelves, that isn’t surprising.

4 ½ stars

I almost gave it only 4 stars. I found one thing at the end great, though not surprising, but one other thing I found anti-climactic and, for me, almost boring, definitely...more

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Nov 03, 2012 Michele.♥ rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-books-of-2012, favorites

Rating: 5 Stars

Before reading: My expectations for this book were really low. I only read it because I won it from randombuzzers.com (Great website btw!). I kept putting off reading i5 since it looked very childish..

After Reading: Wow! I really wish I read it sooner! I was pleasantly surprised how much I really enjoyed this book. Sure this book is probably meant to target middle schoolers yet I think people of all ages would really enjoy this book. It's a fun book with great characters,witty dia...more

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May 17, 2013 Brandy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bildungsroman, 2013, boy-books, audiobooks, bullies, childrens, family-drama, parents_exist, friendship, potential_booktalks, realistic, teen, library

Georges and his parents just sold their house and moved into an apartment after his dad lost his job and money gets tight. Well, Georges and his dad move; his mom is always at the hospital where she works, but she and Georges communicate by Scrabble-tile messages spelled out on his desk each night. Georges is lucky to make a new friend in the building: Safer, who runs the Spy Club and sets them to spying on Mr. X, the mysterious neighbor. It's a friendship even if both parties are hiding things...more

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Apr 26, 2013 Kimberly rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: teen-booktalks

Normally, I would begin by giving a synopsis of the story, but with this one I’m starting with the main character Georges. This kid is all of us. We kind of hate school, we try to stay under everyone’s radar. We just try to do our work, get through the day, and hope no one notices us. And he lovingly tolerates his mom checking on him every 15 minutes – after all, she's an ICU nurse, and checking on people is just what she does.
As the story opens, we follow Georges through a Friday at school, fir...more Normally, I would begin by giving a synopsis of the story, but with this one I’m starting with the main character Georges. This kid is all of us. We kind of hate school, we try to stay under everyone’s radar. We just try to do our work, get through the day, and hope no one notices us. And he lovingly tolerates his mom checking on him every 15 minutes – after all, she's an ICU nurse, and checking on people is just what she does.
As the story opens, we follow Georges through a Friday at school, first science class and then gym class, where he has a brief vision of making the perfect volleyball serve, but then gets brought back to reality when it merely bounces in front of him. The bell rings at the end of class and he’s free to go. And as much as he wants to run into the weekend awaiting him, this is one weekend he’d rather not be at home. His dad has lost his job, his mom is working too many extra hours at the hospital to count, and this weekend, they are moving from their house to an apartment.
But then he meets Safer, the coffee- drinking 12-year old leader of the Spy Club. And even though Georges thinks Safer is slightly odd, he begins to buy into Safer’s spy theories about becoming more observant and aware. Safer has his sights on the mysterious Mr. X, who also lives in the building, wears all black all the time, and carries big heavy suitcases in and out. And now that Safer has a partner, Georges is asked to do spy things that’s he not exactly comfortable with.
Spying is getting out of hand. Can Georges tell Safer no, or does he go along with it to keep his new friend happy?
Then Georges gets some advice from his dad - even though you try to see the bigger picture and think that if you can just get through this then none of it will matter later, you have to live life NOW. Life is just a bunch of nows, one after the other. A bunch of dots that, when connected, form a bigger – and stronger - picture than you can possibly imagine. And sometimes you have to connect the dots yourself.(less)

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Apr 23, 2013 Pinkie Pie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: library

Liar & Spy was absolutely wonderful, and quite the breath of fresh air after reading a series of dark, intense thrillers. This quirky middle grade title stars the loner, Georges, and his neighbor Safer with his offbeat family. There's a mystery and friendship, and a strong family connection, all pulled together to make me adore this book.

Georges was an easy character to like. He was very simple, a typical 12 year old boy. His father had just been laid off and so his family had to move to a m...more Liar & Spy was absolutely wonderful, and quite the breath of fresh air after reading a series of dark, intense thrillers. This quirky middle grade title stars the loner, Georges, and his neighbor Safer with his offbeat family. There's a mystery and friendship, and a strong family connection, all pulled together to make me adore this book.

Georges was an easy character to like. He was very simple, a typical 12 year old boy. His father had just been laid off and so his family had to move to a more modest apartment, leaving behind Georges' memories and beautiful bedroom. But Georges is a good kid, and is taking it all in stride. His mother is working double shifts at the hospital, and they communicate via scrabble-tile messages left for each other every morning. The connection Georges has to his parents is heartwarming. I love reading about parents who are there for their children instead of the conveniently absent parents that litter YA literature today.

After moving to the new apartment, Georges becomes fast friends with his upstairs neighbor, Safer, a quirky little kid who drinks coffee from a flask, loves birds, and has made it his mission to figure out what exactly Mr X is up to. Safer was a great character - just weird and odd-ball enough to be fun, without being over the top. Safer's family is just as cooky. He, his sister Candy, and his brother Pigeon all chose their own names, they're home schooled, and they even cook their own meals. They were exactly the kind of family you would expect them to be.

Safer enlists Georges to help him spy on their neighbor, Mr X, and so starts off the mystery. It was lots of fun watching these boys grow closer, staring at the lobby monitor and observing their neighbors' routines. But too quickly events started escalating, and soon enough, Georges is way over his head.

Then comes the big reveal, the ending. My mind was blown, and I was a sniffling, snotting, ugly-crying mess. I was wholly not expecting that at all. I really thought that this was one of those 'what you see is what you get' books but that's not the case at all. Instead, it was a story that begs to be reread immediately, with intricate layers, and tons of foreshadowing I never even noticed.

If you're in the mood for a heartwarming story about friendship and family and growing up, I one hundred percent recommend Rebecca Stead's Liar & Spy. It is a quick read, with great characters that come to life right on the page.(less)

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Apr 21, 2013 Cleo rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed When You Reach Me, so I gave Rebecca Stead's latest novel a try. And it was really good. It's the story of Georges (the s is silent) who moves into a new apartment building in Brooklyn, where he meets Safer, a twelve-year-old drinker of coffee and leader of the Spy Club. He also has a younger sister named Candy. Georges slowly gets to know their family, and enjoys hanging out with them. He's been having problems at home and school: his dad lost his job, and his mom works extra shifts a...more I enjoyed When You Reach Me, so I gave Rebecca Stead's latest novel a try. And it was really good. It's the story of Georges (the s is silent) who moves into a new apartment building in Brooklyn, where he meets Safer, a twelve-year-old drinker of coffee and leader of the Spy Club. He also has a younger sister named Candy. Georges slowly gets to know their family, and enjoys hanging out with them. He's been having problems at home and school: his dad lost his job, and his mom works extra shifts as a nurse. At school, he's the target of Dallas, a big bully and also a big idiot. Georges is Safer's first recruit, and his job is to track the mysterious Mr. X who lives in the apartment his. But how far will he be willing to go? And is Safer telling him the truth?

In case you couldn't tell, I basically paraphrased the given summary. I really enjoyed the characters in this quirky novel, especially Candy, who's about seven years old but really smart and interesting. The thing about Rebecca Stead's novels is that there are so many different elements that contribute to the over-arching story and to the overarching "themes". There's the fact that the kids are learning about taste in science, and the Seurat painting that Georges talks about. In some ways, Liar & Spy is about seeing the big picture, not just the little dots.

Though the book is of course very different from Wonder, which I recently read, it also had some similarities in its picture of school life. For starters, both books are set in New York. Then, there's the fact that both of the protagonists are getting bullied. The writing is also kind of similar, though Georges is two years older than August. Liar & Spy is a much lighter and less cheesy book though.

There's a really big twist at the end of Liar & Spy; I'm not sure if I liked it. It just felt so sudden and completely unexpected, and it didn't seem to add much to the story. However, there was also an amazing scene at the end where the bullies get their comeuppance, and the "rules" of the school get defied. I really enjoyed this one, and would recommend it.

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Apr 18, 2013 Lauren Fogg rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-talk

Georges, the main character of this book, has moved into a new apartment building with his parents. Georges also doesn’t have any friends. However, it isn’t because it's a new place, because he only moved 3 blocks away from his old house. It is simply because Georges isn't considered one of the "cool" kids. Things start looking up for Georges when he meets Safer, a twelve-year-old spy. Georges soon becomes his first recruit and they work together to solve the mystery surrounding Mr. X, a residen...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Nobies57 rated it 4 of 5 stars

George is having some lousy luck. His father has lost his job, necessitating that they move into an apartment and his mother, a nurse is working double shift hours. His best friend at school has ditched him to sit at the table with the bullies and George is left out. (not unlike When You Reach Me). Lonely, he responds to a sign for a spy club that meets in the basement of his apartment building. There he meets Spacer and his quirky sister. Spacer is home schooled and for a while, his family seem...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Ms. Patti rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bullying, children, overcoming-fears, realistic-fiction, middle-school

Liar & Spy is the latest book by Newbery-winning author Rebecca Stead (When You Reach Me). Georges (the 's' is silent) is a seventh-grader in Brooklyn. Due to his father's layoff from his job as an architect, the family has to move into an apartment. While Georges doesn't have to change schools (the apartment is only a few blocks from his old house), he does have to deal with leaving the only home he has known behind. Add to that an absent mom (working extra nursing shifts), a distracted dad...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Joshua Cummins rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: newbery-honor

Georges (the s is silent) is your fairly average seventh grader. Him and his parents just recently had to move out of their house and into an apartment when Georges dad got laid off. Georges is also the victim of a couple bullies at school. Georges becomes a member of the Spy Club in the apartments, which is really just him, a boy his age named Safer, and his little sister named Candy. Georges joins just in time as Safer is currently in hot pursuit spying on Mr. X, a man who lives in the apartme...more Georges (the s is silent) is your fairly average seventh grader. Him and his parents just recently had to move out of their house and into an apartment when Georges dad got laid off. Georges is also the victim of a couple bullies at school. Georges becomes a member of the Spy Club in the apartments, which is really just him, a boy his age named Safer, and his little sister named Candy. Georges joins just in time as Safer is currently in hot pursuit spying on Mr. X, a man who lives in the apartment directly above Georges, who is a mysterious man who wears nothing but black and never talks. Safer's theory is that he chops up bodies in his apartment and wheels them out in all those suitcases he has. Georges is not comfortable with anything Safer asks him to do. Mostly Georges serves as lookout for Safer, since Georges will never actually do the dirty work. Georges has to stall Safer's mom while he goes through Mr. X's laundry and watch the lobby cam several times while Safer breaks into Mr. X's apartment. Then, in the middle of one of Safer's break ins, Mr. X walks into the front door of the building, and with no way to allow Safer to know he is coming, Georges runs out and hits the elevator button to stop it on his floor to give Safer some more time. But when he gets on the elevator with Mr. X, he isn't at all what Safer has explained him to be. He's very nice and talkative, but Safer said Mr. X never talked. Then after Mr. X has entered his apartment Safer calls Georges and tells him he is ready to leave Mr. X's apartment as soon as he gets the okay from Georges. That's when Georges realizes that Safer has never broken into Mr. X's apartment. It was all a game. Safer has been lying this whole time. Safer has keys to "Mr. X's" apartment because he walked his dogs. Georges can't believe he has been lying to him this whole time and wants nothing to do with Safer. Meanwhile, at school the highly anticipated taste-test is just around the corner. The test where the teacher gives each student a little slip of paper and most of the students will be able to taste something very bitter while a couple won't be able to taste anything. The kids who bully Georges have begun calling it the "G-test' because they say Georges will be one of the few "freaks" who can't taste anything. The kid who sits by Georges in science, Bob English Who Draws, comes up with a plan. The plan included all the other kids who maybe didn't have a lot of friends. The plan was that no matter what they tasted, they all stay in their seats and act like they didn't taste anything, even though most of them, including Georges, did taste the terrible taste. The each had a blue dot on their palm and began to call themselves the "Blue Team", and that dot symbolized that they were never alone. At the beginning of the book the Georges explains to us that his mom works a lot of double shifts now that his dad was laid off. But after having a good cry, he admits that his mom is sick and has been in the hospital for about two weeks. Since she worked at the hospital anyways he just pretended she was at work. This is just one of the few twists in this book. Everything at the end begins to turn around for Georges and he even gives Ms. Warner a high five (even though it isn't Friday). The ending was by far the best. Georges begins to find encouragement at school with the newly formed "Blue Team", him and Safer are friends again, and after learning about his mother's sickness, it is a huge relief when she is healed and returns home. It was an excellent read that I'm sure would be suitable for a 4th or 5th grader.(less)

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Mar 29, 2013 Sam A rated it 5 of 5 stars

Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead is about a 13-year-old boy named Georges (the s is silent!!) that moves to Brooklyn. He is immediately classified as a nerd at school, and is constantly being made fun of every day. But when he goes into the basement of his apartment building to get the laundry, he finds a sign-up sheet for a spy club, and meets a home-schooled boy his age named Safer. Safer teaches him the basics of spying, and Georges finds out that Safer is trying to convict a man he calls “Mr. X...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Corinne Wilson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-read-as-a-grad-student, children-s-lit

This novel doesn't have the same gripping start as When You Reach Me, the last book I read before the start of this class, but by the end I liked it almost as much. Georges is dealing with bullying, hard financial times for his family, and questions about life he can't answer when he moves into a new apartment building and finally makes a friend. Soon, however, his friend takes their spy club too far, and Georges begins to worry that they've crossed a line. The characters and events in this book...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had read 'When You Reach Me' a while ago and really loved it, which is why I bought this book. And it is another good one by Rebecca Stead. Georges (pronounced George but with no s) has had to move house because his dad lost his job and they are downsizing into an apartment. On his first day there, he and his Dad notice a faded old note, 'Spy Club Meeting - TODAY' in the laundry. Dad writes 'WHAT TIME?' on it, and to Georges' surprise, when he goes down later that day, there is an answer. Time...more

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Feb 16, 2013 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: chat-n-chew-2012-2013, ya-2012

Georges (named after Georges Seurat) moves to a apartment and meets a boy named Safer, the founder and leader of "The Spy Club," in which Georges is reluctantly inducted as the only member. Georges welcomes the distraction because things at home and school are a little stressful. His father lost his job and is starting his own business, forcing them to downsize and his mother is away a lot. At school he is the target of the class bullies who make fun of his name and his nerdy smart, nonathletic...more

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Feb 03, 2013 Grace rated it 2 of 5 stars

I feel a little bad about rating this so low, but it's the truth. I didn't really like it. There are intentional gaps all the way through, and I think you're meant to guess at what's going on, but then the reveal comes and I ended up going "...so?"

While the friendship between the two boys felt natural, the outside world didn't. It just didn't. And now I've finished the book and have all the puzzle pieces, I feel annoyed because going back to the earlier chapters and slotting in the info I now ha...more I feel a little bad about rating this so low, but it's the truth. I didn't really like it. There are intentional gaps all the way through, and I think you're meant to guess at what's going on, but then the reveal comes and I ended up going "...so?"

While the friendship between the two boys felt natural, the outside world didn't. It just didn't. And now I've finished the book and have all the puzzle pieces, I feel annoyed because going back to the earlier chapters and slotting in the info I now have, there are HUGE gaps. HUGE.

Spoiler time, because I can't write around it much more: (view spoiler)

In short, no, I did not like this book and given it's the second Stead book I've read that I've put down at the end and growled "you did not think this through", I think I'm done with her. Her writing's good. Her willingness to sacrifice logic in favor of a grand theme is not.(less)

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Jan 23, 2013 Corinne Wilson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-read-as-a-grad-student, children-s-lit

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Jan 11, 2013 Deirdre rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a sweet story, occasionally I felt a little old for it but as the story unfolded it just caught me. I have no idea how I put it onto my wishlist or who recommended it to me, but I'm glad I found it.

The story unfolds as Georges (the S is silent as he's named after his parent's favourite Artist Georges Seurat) moves into an appartment in his neighbourhood after his father loses his job and they're dependent on his mother, a nurse, for their income. His mother is largely absent due to her...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Amy Musser rated it 5 of 5 stars

When twelve year old Georges (the “s” is silent) moves into a new apartment his life changes and not just because his family had to sell the house he grew up in. His father is busy building his own business and his mother is picking up extra shifts as a nurse at the hospital. Georges endures constant bullying at school, but he tries to ignore it, reminding himself that his time in school is just a small dot in the impressionist painting that is his life. In the midst of all of this, Georges find...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Jenny Mayher rated it 4 of 5 stars

Liar and Spy is a frontrunner for lots of awards this year, and with good reason. This short, readable book is layered like an onion, with plenty to love at each layer.

On the surface it is a highly appealing book, with lively chapters about a likable cast of characters. Georges (silent S) is a sympathetic narrator, and his life is full of interesting challenges: his family has just moved from a roomy house to a small apartment due to changing financial circumstances, his mother is absent working...more Liar and Spy is a frontrunner for lots of awards this year, and with good reason. This short, readable book is layered like an onion, with plenty to love at each layer.

On the surface it is a highly appealing book, with lively chapters about a likable cast of characters. Georges (silent S) is a sympathetic narrator, and his life is full of interesting challenges: his family has just moved from a roomy house to a small apartment due to changing financial circumstances, his mother is absent working long hours as a nurse, he is bullied at school, and the young neighbors in his new apartment building are eccentric and fascinating. Georges finds himself inducted into a “spy club” that keeps him constantly guessing about what will happen next. The story moves briskly along, and I couldn’t wait to read more.
The layer just under the surface is packed with compelling themes: family dynamics, bullying, the nature of friendship, the difficulty of change.

Beneath these themes is a layer of probing questions and Big Ideas: what is Truth? What are the consequences of obscuring truth? Is there a moral difference between small white lies and big, life-changing lies? What is Fear? How does fear control us? What is Courage? How are different people courageous in different ways? What makes us brave?

Liar and Spy is appealing because it tackles Big Ideas in a format that is completely accessible, even for kids. A rare juvenile novel that may resonate equally with both award committees and actual children.

I felt a little unsettled by Liar and Spy. There are twists and turns along the way that surprised me, and made me think. This is not necessarily a bad thing–after all, one of the points of reading is to surprise us into thinking. Some of the books I remember best as a child: Harriet the Spy, The Little Prince, The Wizard of Earthsea, are memorable precisely because they are unsettling. Does this slender, new book belong in that list of giants? It just might.

But I might have to read it again to figure that out.

For boys and girls age 10-12.
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Dec 14, 2012 Sarah Hipple rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-grade

Georges' life is not as good as it used to be. He had to move and leave behind his awesome bedroom that had a fire escape inside it, his dad lost his job, his mom's working all the time, and his former best friend isn't his friend any more. Oh, and his name is weird because it ends with an "S."

But at least there's his favorite Chinese restaurant, and he's sort of making friends with this weird kid in his new building who thinks he's a spy.

This was a really well written book about kids who are no...more

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Dec 07, 2012 Kellie rated it 5 of 5 stars

You might like this book if you liked When You Reach Me, or you like stories that have a kind of moody unrest about them and are slightly mysterious and atmospheric.

I loved Rebecca Stead's second novel, When You Reach Me, so I got this from the library as soon as I heard about it. I got to see her speak at the National Book Festival a couple of years ago and enjoyed that as well. She really has a gift for language that is perfect for her intended audience, but does not insult the intelligence of...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Ed added it

Stead, R. (2012). Liar & spy. New York: Random House/Wendy Lamb Books. 185 pp. ISBN: 978-0-385-73743-2. (Hardcover); $15.99.

Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me was my pick to win the Newbery (along with a great number of other reviewers and children’s literature lovers). Consequently, I was worried that Liar & Spy would prove to be something of a let down. When I finished reading this book, I said to myself, “She could win again!”

Right off the bat, Stead won my admiration by teaching me s...more Stead, R. (2012). Liar & spy. New York: Random House/Wendy Lamb Books. 185 pp. ISBN: 978-0-385-73743-2. (Hardcover); $15.99.

Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me was my pick to win the Newbery (along with a great number of other reviewers and children’s literature lovers). Consequently, I was worried that Liar & Spy would prove to be something of a let down. When I finished reading this book, I said to myself, “She could win again!”

Right off the bat, Stead won my admiration by teaching me something about my own tongue and using this information about false, scientific knowledge as a metaphor for what Georges believes about his rightful place in the world. Stead, you have my attention! Georges is a displaced middle school soul. His house is gone. His friends are gone. Due to their huge financial woes, even his mother is mostly gone and Georges is forced to communicate with her via a Scrabble board. Georges is also the victim of his parents’ over-enthusiastic love of painter, Georges Seurat: “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 his life easier.” (p. 12). Georges is called “Gorgeous” at school and is often bullied by Dallas Llewellyn and cronies because of that one extra S. Choosing Seurat, a painter famous for his use of small individual dots of paint to construct very large paintings is an excellent complement to this middle school coming of age mystery. Georges lives in a Brooklyn apartment building near Candy and Safer, homeschooled students who live in a family that allows them to choose their own names. Safer is the building’s resident spy and he needs Georges help to discover the nefarious evil schemes of the illusive Mr. X. Safer instructs Georges in the fine art of noticing details: buttons, garbage cans, clothing color, and more. With scouting help from Candy (who uses her money to buy, um, candy—guess how she got her name), Safer constructs a plan to enter the apartment of Mr. X. To gain entry, however, he will need Georges to act bravely, gain self-confidence, and do things that generate heaps of ethical anxiety in Georges’ mind, to say nothing of scaring him half to death. Safer’s lessons about noticing details provide Georges with the incentive to do just that and Georges begins to uncover in the dots and dabs several very different stories. The twists in this book, built on all the dotted clues sprinkled throughout, continually delight readers. It is the voice, however, the very believable middle school voice of Georges that transforms this book into a masterpiece that will have the Newbery committee reading this one again and again. (less)

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Nov 28, 2012 Barbara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: animals, art, bullies, families, friendship, ncbla2013, school, self-esteem, teachers, urban-life, names

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Nov 21, 2012 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: guys-read, j, life, not-graphic

That's one of the potential pitfalls of listening to an audiobook. I can't just sit and listen; I have to be doing something brainless with my body, walking or cleaning or otherwise moving. Often I can fall deeply into the book and totally forget my body that's on autopilot, but other times my attention is split and I end up a bit unfocused about the reading. Skimming, if you will, hearing enough to get the gist, but not absorbing every word.

Which means if I'm listening to a subtle, understated...more That's one of the potential pitfalls of listening to an audiobook. I can't just sit and listen; I have to be doing something brainless with my body, walking or cleaning or otherwise moving. Often I can fall deeply into the book and totally forget my body that's on autopilot, but other times my attention is split and I end up a bit unfocused about the reading. Skimming, if you will, hearing enough to get the gist, but not absorbing every word.

Which means if I'm listening to a subtle, understated book--like this one--I can nearly miss the actual story. I did. For the first three-quarters of Liar & Spy, I was underwhelmed by the lack of action and plot, unstimulated by what felt like a mundane story about the banal details of an ordinary life. It didn't seem exciting enough to be worth writing down. Then, finally, something clicked for me and I realized I'd been missing the real story.

Kind of like looking at paintings by Georges Seurat. He is known for using "pointillism," composing his pictures of thousands of tiny dots of color. When looked at up close, they just look like random splotches of colors, but back away and the dots blur together until the eye and brain see patterns emerge and--suddenly--a picture clicks into place.

I spent too much of this book paying attention to the boring little details up close, and it was only near the end that the pattern suddenly emerged for me and it all clicked into a powerful picture. That was by design, I think, but my distracted audio listening made it all the more poignant. As soon as I finished the last track, I grabbed the book and thumbed through it again from start to finish, reliving the story with the proper pattern in place, and realized just what a good book I'd been missing. If I had read it in a different frame of mind, I might have even given it five stars instead of four.

I'll let you have your own experience with the story and not say too much here, just a basic outline of the landscape. This is a story about Georges (named after the painter) during a difficult moment in his life, a confluence of many unfortunate events: his family has just downsized from a house to an apartment while his dad is out of work, his mom is nearly absent from his life as she works double shifts at the hospital, he's trying to negotiate a possible new friendship at his new home, and he's stuck, virtually alone and friendless, dealing with bullies at school. Luckily, Georges learns that dots matter, both up close and far away.(less)

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Henrico Mock Newb...: Liar & Spy	9	15	Jan 21, 2013 03:24pm
SHSU Library Scie...: LIAR & SPY by Rebecca Stead	9	13	Nov 17, 2012 02:44pm
Mock Newbery 2014: September Read - Liar & Spy	44	157	Oct 17, 2012 08:49pm

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About Rebecca Stead

I love books but don't feel like stars capture what I want to say about them. Many of the books on my list are, in my opinion, amazing. Some I didn't like. But I give them all five stars, because stars make people - including me -- happy. Confused? Me too.

If you want to talk about any book I've read, I'm here.

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Guys Read: Plan B: A Short Story from Guys Read: Other Worlds

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Quotes from Liar and Spy

“Life is a million different dots making one gigantic picture. And maybe the big picture is nice, maybe it's amazing, but if you're standing with your face pressed up against a bunch of black dots, it's really hard to tell.” — 18 people liked it

“Boredom is what happens to people who have no control over their minds.” — 11 people liked it

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