After downsizing and moving to an apartment with his family, Georges (yes with an "s") and his dad are in the basement throwing out garbage when they see a sign posted on a door. "Spy Club Meeting -- TODAY!". Much to Georges' chagrin, his dad writes "What time?" on the sign, setting off a series of events that will occupy Georges' days for the next while.
Georges himself, is a big of an awkward kid. He puts up with the daily microbullying that his mom says aren't part of the big picture. The big picture of life is kind of like the Seurat print they have in their living room. If you look at it close up, it's just a bunch of dots, but back away to see the big picture and everything comes into focus. Thinking about the big picture doesn't make school any easier, however. The sarcastic clapping at his volleyball moves, the renaming him Gorgeous, the fact that his friend Jason came back from camp completely different -- these things all pepper Georges days. Add onto this the fact that his nurse mom is always at the hospital, and his dad works plenty as well, and you get a sense of what Georges is going through.
So when somebody answers on the Spy Club sign that there is a meeting at 1:30 and Georges' dad encourages him to go, nobody is more surprised than Georges to find a kid waiting in the basement room. He first meets Candy, then Safer and their family from the 6th floor. Safer says that he's a spy and that he's got his eye on one of the building's tenants. He's creepy -- always wears black and is constantly hauling big suitcases in and out of the building. Safer teaches Georges some of the art of being a spy, and before he knows it, he is in over his head.
Rebecca Stead has written what could be called the perfect tween/middle grade novel. She gets kids, and the situations the characters get into as well as their voices are spot on. Each setting rings true, and the slow simmer and reveal are plotted precisely and perfectly. Stead manages to pay close attention to detail without slowing the pace of the story. There is a message in Liar & Spy about empathy and bullying and being an ally, but it doesn't feel the least bit didactic. Liar & Spy has quickly risen into my top five for the year.
I have been getting quite a few requests in the library for Choose Your Own Adventures these days. The requests are coming from both the younger and the older set, which is pretty interesting to me. One of the bolder of these that I am giving to the older kids is
Meanwhile, by Jason Shiga.
Chocolate or Vanilla? This choice will sets off an adventure involving quantum physics, inventions, and entropy among other things. Our young ice cream fan needs a bathroom, and finds one in a lab where he gets the privilege of testing out some inventions (which ones are entirely up to you!).
Differing from the typical Choose Your Own Adventure, this is in no way a linear journey. Readers get to the next segment of the story by following a series of pipes up, down, back and forth and occasionally through a tangled up maze to get to the next segment of the story.
Now, I in no way made it through all 3856 options, but you know what? I know *several* kids who will take the time and the renewals that it will take in order to do it! Shiga has a gift for making the uber scientific concepts accessible to kids (and adults) who may not know what things like entropy really mean coming into
Meanwhile.
The format is great. Laminated pages will hold up to all of the back and forth that the pages need to have to make the story work, and the explanation of how the book works is very clear. This is a great book to gift to someone as they will return to it again and again, even if they only have "10 minutes" to get some reading in.
Meanwhile was recently listed in
YALSA's Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens, and I will extend the category to include the tweens as well!
So, what was the release date of this book? November 9th or something? Well, it left our shelf on that day and didn't come back until Friday. I snagged it and used a couple of commutes to get it read so that I can put it on the shelf to disappear for the next 3 months!
Greg and Rowley are on the outs. Greg is considering his options for new friends, but he has to face the fact that they are few and far between. Christopher Brownfield is more of a summer friend (he's really great for keeping mosquitos away!) and Tyson Sanders has a bathroom habit that's hard overlook.
More is changing in Greg's life than just his body (a fact that he can't avoid thanks to his teacher insisting showers happen after PE and his mother giving him an embarrassing puberty book). His mother has decided to go back to school. Since she is not around so much, Greg, his brothers and father are left to fend for themselves for dinner, cleaning and getting ready for school often to disasterous results, as you can imagine.
One of the best segments in the book happens when the school has a lock-in sleep over. After all of the games and cellphones are confiscated, the fun begins with ice-breaker games, too many chaperones and an incident involving body parts and polaroid cameras!
There were fewer laugh-out-loud moments in this installment, and Greg isn't really growing too much as a character, however, tweens are still eating up the series. The vignette style means that readers generally will recognize their lives in the book somewhere, whether it's having to take care of an egg for health class, being locked in at school for a sleepover, or having a parent who goes back to work. The stories are solidly in tween territory now with issues of friendship, puberty, family and the search for self swirling through the pages.
We have five copies in the library even though we sold 50 copies at our book fair, and I still haven't been able to read it, either!
Haven't read this one yet--thanks for the review! A sleepover; that sounds rife for comedy. Secretly, my favorite character is Greg's little brother.