Monday, December 3, 2012

Liar and Spy

LIAR & SPY 
BY REBECCA STEAD
SUMMARY: 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 is not a 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.

Genre: Contemporary, Middle Grade

Motivational Activities: 

Exploring Taste

  • Lay out lemons or lemonade, candy, pretzels and unsweetened cocoa bars. Ask the children what they think each food will taste like before giving it to them. Let each child take a sample of each of the four flavors and explore them using taste. What does the candy taste like? Encourage them to use descriptive words when exploring taste. Ask them why they are frowning or sucking in their cheeks when they taste a lemon. Be sure the children don't have any food allergies before starting this project.
Discussion Questions: 
Who is George?
Who is the other spy he met?
Who sat up the meeting?
What was the main purpose of the story?
Did the title match the main idea of the story?

Personal Comments: I was already a fan of Rebecca Stead after her beautiful book, When You Reach Me. So when I saw Liar & Spy was coming out, I knew it would be something special.

My assumption was not wrong.

This little book reminded me of playing pretend, of dealing with bullies, of forging new friendships and dealing with change. With a quiet, leading voice, Rebecca takes her main character Georges (the S is silent) and leads the reader through a story filled with such small ups and downs that the ride seems like it's going nowhere until the destination hits you and realization dawns. I don't know how else to describe this journey.

Filled with surprises, revelations, and most of all, lessons about the importance of community and fellowship with other people - which includes the openness of mind to accept them, this is a middle-grade novel that, I suspect, will be knocking on the door of another award.

If you have middle-graders or contact to middle-graders, please recommend this book. It has such a story to tell and lessons to teach - but manages to be understanding and not preachy about those lessons. Most of all - it's fun. I mean, what kid doesn't imagine being in a spy club of sorts?
Online Resources 

Rebecca Stead’s website 
http://www.rebeccasteadbooks.com 

International Spy Museum 
http://www.spymuseum.org 

Central Intelligence Agency Spy Games for Kids 
https://www.cia.gov/kids-page/games/index.html 

Spy-themed Science Activities 
http://www.howtosmile.org/user/lists/list/3055 

Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. UnknownDecember 16, 2012 at 9:55 AM

    Hi My name is Nykeadra and i would like to add two literature response activities to your blog. one of them would be to have them pull scripts that you have written about particular scenes in the book out of a hat or something and have them get into groups and act that scene out in front of the class. Another one would be to create there own book cover for the book of how they would want it to look if they were picked to design a cover.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)