Middle Grade Book of the Week: Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead

Summary

After his father loses his job, Georges’ family moves to a Brooklyn apartment building. The first day there he notices an invitation to join a spy club. He thinks it’s a joke, but then he meets Safer and his sister, Candy. Safer pulls Georges into a mission to spy on their mysterious neighbor, Mr. X. As the mission continues the lines are blurred between lies and reality, and Safer and Georges both face problems they’ve been avoiding. Meanwhile, his science class is the middle of learning about taste, and the entire class is anxious to see the results of a taste test. According to school legend, your future is determined by whether not you can taste a certain chemical.

My Thoughts

I listened to this book while on a road trip. I think that affected my experience of the book. I liked the plot and the characters but found my mind wandering, as tends to happen to me when I listen to books. I really liked the story with Safer. He’s an interesting, quirky, character from a Bohemian family. He gets Georges into some very comical situations, but also teaches him a lot about friendship. While the story at school was very important and had a great scene where bullies get what they deserve, it didn’t capture my attention as much. I think it was partly the idea that kids would put so much stock in a science experiment (or that a seventh-grade teacher would have the luxury of spending an entire week, just teaching about taste). I do think it would be a great book for class discussions. There are so many cross-curricular activities that could be tied into this book. I loved that she tied in some lessons about the history of spelling, which I find fascinating.