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Summary
Summary
The instant New York Times bestseller from the author of the Newbery Medal winner When You Reach Me : a story about spies, games, and friendship.
The first day Georges (the S is silent) moves into a new Brooklyn apartment, he sees a sign taped to a door in the basement: SPY CLUB MEETING--TODAY!
That's how he meets his twelve-year-old neighbor Safer. He and Georges quickly become allies--and fellow spies. Their assignment? Tracking the mysterious Mr. X, who lives in the apartment upstairs. But as Safer's requests become more and more demanding, Georges starts to wonder: how far is too far to go for your only friend?
"Will touch the hearts of kids and adults alike." --NPR
Winner of the Guardian Prize for Children's Fiction
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and more!
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
When seventh-grader Georges and his family move into a new apartment building in Brooklyn, N.Y., he meets 12-year-old Safer, who recruits him to join her spy squad in an attempt to gather intelligence about Mr. X, a man who resides in an upstairs suite. As Georges, narrator Jesse Bernstein is youthful yet wise: a child who's suffered more than his fair share of life. As Safer, Bernstein is darker, sounding like a troubled youth who is ready to control any situation. Of course, there's more than meets the eye in Stead's novel, and Bernstein's understated performance leaves room for interpretation. Listeners will be charmed by this memorable listen and Bernstein's rendition of two unusual and endlessly interesting characters. Ages 8-up. A Wendy Lamb hardcover. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Life is lousy for Brooklyn seventh-grader Georges. His architect father has been laid off so theyve had to move, and he never sees his mother now that shes doing double shifts as an intensive-care nurse. School is no respite, what with former best friend Jason having ditched him to sit at the cool lunch table and with bully Dallass endless torments. And so when he meets homeschooler Safer, who lives in his new building and offers to train him as a spy, Georges figures, why not? Their target is one Mr. X, who lives on the fourth floor and, according to Safer, has been behaving in some very worrisome ways. Wild parrots, Scrabble tiles, SweeTarts, the Science Unit of Destiny, and Americas Funniest Home Videos all factor into this smart, slightly noirish tale. As she did in her Newbery winner When You Reach Me (rev. 7/09), Stead creates a rich world contained within a few city blocks. We visit candy store owner Bennie and experience his unique method of giving change, get a sense of DeMarcos excellent pizza, and read the eccentric fortunes that come in the cookies at Yum Lis ("Why dont you look up once in a while? Is something wrong with your neck?"). Steads spare and elegant prose, compassionate insight into the lives of young people, wry sense of humor, deft plotting, and ability to present complex ideas in an accessible and intriguing way make this much more than a mystery-with-a-twist. monica edinger (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Stead follows her Newbery Medal winner, When You Reach Me (2009), with another story that deals with reality and perception. Seventh-grader Georges (like Seurat) is living in a new apartment in Brooklyn since the loss of his father's job necessitated selling their house. His mother still has her job as a nurse, but now she must work double shifts. He goes to the same school, though, which is not necessarily a good thing, because he is relegated to the outsiders' table. Having a neighbor his age, the loosely homeschooled Safer, offers some new possibilities for Georges, especially since Safer considers himself a spy and is happy to lure Georges into his games. There are two mysteries here: one concerns Georges' mother, and the other the truth about a shady building tenant, who Safer maintains could be a murderer. Many readers will guess at least part of the truth about the first, despite the sometimes-labored effort put into concealing it. The revelation about the second will be more of a surprise and offers insight into the nature of friendship. Fresh and funny, this will speak to many children trying to find their own way. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The buzz generated by Stead's multiaward winner, When You Reach Me, ensures that this will have a built-in audience, and large-scale promotional plans won't hurt either.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-7-Georges is named after Georges Seurat, the noted impressionist, and that extra "s" in his name is doing him no favors. Nicknamed "gorgeous" and "gorges," life in middle school is less than fun. The seventh grader has a lot on his plate: no real friends at school and his family is moving from their home to an apartment because his dad lost his job. Mom is working extra shifts at the hospital to make ends meet so she and Georges are like ships passing in the night. At least, that's what we are led to believe in the beginning. The new apartment holds promise when he meets the quirky family upstairs whose wacky home-schooled kids include him in their spy club and dog walking concerns. Safer, the spymaster, brings Georges out of himself and gives him confidence. In turn, Georges helps Safer start to face his fears and the boys begin to change in ways they never thought possible. Jesse Bernstein voices the different characters well and provides the tonal ups and downs the story demands. However, there is one mispronunciation that mars the otherwise strong performance. All the "str" blends, like street and struggle, are consistently turned into "shtr," like shtreet and shtruggle, which is very disconcerting. A more meticulous reading would have served the story better. That said, the audio version of Stead's story (Wendy Lamb Bks., 2012) would be a great addition to middle-school libraries.-Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Guardian Review
The title on the cover of Rebecca Stead's latest book is made up of Scrabble letters, along with a conveniently created "&" tile, which is highly appropriate because this is a book about the games we play and the different rules we choose to play them by. There are the messages Georges leaves his mother in Scrabble tiles last thing at night, and the messages she leaves him to find in the morning. (She works night shifts at the hospital.) But is she really leaving those messages, or is someone else? Or can it somehow be both her and not her? What game is being played here? And, yes, that's Georges with a silent "s", pronounced plain George, after the artist Georges Seurat. He played games too by, for example, putting a dab of red next to a dab of blue which, from a distance is perceived as being purple. His greatest trick, of course, being to paint in tiny dots that, from a distance, look like solid blocks of colour. Words are themselves a form of game. You have to follow the rules to make sense of them. Georges's school friend Bob English is following a less well-trodden path, giving the famous example of how "ghoti" spells "fish" (with the f sound of the gh from "enough", the i sound of the o from "women", and the sh sound of ti from "nation"). He also claims to champion spelling reform. "I spell it like it sounds," he tells Georges, having just written the word dumb without the "b". "Ask yourself: does the 'b' serve a purpose? Why is it even there?" And Georges's reaction? "But what I'm thinking is that dum just looks kind of dumb." And, on the subject of dumb, Georges is being verbally bullied at school but chooses to ignore it, never rising to the bait. "It's just dumb stuff. You know, kids being kids. I know none of it will matter in a few years," he finally tells his father. "Mom ... always says look at the big picture. How all the little things don't matter in the long run." "But they matter now, Georges," says his father. More games to play to try to deal with daily life. More of Seurat's little dots. Georges's father has lost his job as an architect and they've had to downsize from a house to an apartment in the same neighbourhood. It is in the apartment block that Georges meets siblings Safer, Candy and Pigeon. Their parents play by different rules: supposedly letting the children name themselves when they were old enough. Candy is a sweet-loving girl and her elder brother, Pigeon, loved birds. But what of Safer? He seems to spend most of his time watching a feral parrots' nest on the building opposite, or watching the lobby for the mysterious Mr X through the camera in the door entryphone system. He enlists Georges into his spy club. But in life, as in games, things are rarely as they purport to be. And, as well as the lies we tell other people in order to get by, there are the lies we tell ourselves. Liar & Spy is very short, very American and very enjoyable. It's also very funny in places, such as the extraordinarily personal fortunes in the fortune cookies at Yum Li's. ("Why don't you look up once in a while? Is something wrong with your neck?") Rebecca Stead makes writing this well look easy. She is, of course, playing games.
Kirkus Review
A seventh-grade boy who is coping with social and economic issues moves into a new apartment building, where he makes friends with an over-imaginative home-schooled boy and his eccentric family. Social rules are meant to be broken is the theme of this big-hearted, delightfully quirky tale, and in keeping with that, Stead creates a world where nothing is as it seems. Yet the surprises are meticulously foreshadowed, so when the pieces of the puzzle finally click in, the readers' "aha" moments are filled with profound satisfaction. When an economic downturn forces Georges' family to move out of their house and into an apartment, it brings Georges into contact with Safer, a home-schooled boy about the same age, and his unconventional but endearing family--and a mystery involving their possibly evil neighbor, Mr. X. At school, Georges must grapple with another type of mystery: why his oncebest friend Jason "shrugged off" their lifelong friendship and suddenly no longer sits with him at lunch. Instead, Jason now sits at the cool table, which is controlled by a bully named Dallas, who delights in tormenting Georges. It would be unfair to give anything away, but suffice it to say that Georges resolves his various issues in a way that's both ingenious and organic to the story. Original and winning. (Fiction. 10-14)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.