Surprising!

I read Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead, Newbery Award winning author of When You Reach Me.  I LOVED When You Reach Me and First Light and wasn't sure I would like Liar and Spy as it seems a different genre.  Without going into too much detail about other books, they fit in with my first love which is of  Sci Fi/Fantasy.  This book does not...no lost civilizations or time travel or wizards.  Boring......

...and yet.  

This book was absolutely compelling!  Rebecca Stead has a talent for taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary, and for adding surprising twists.

Georges (the S is silent) is not having the best year.  His best friend has simply abandoned him for the cool table, his dad was laid off, his mom is working way too many doubles, and they have to leave the house he loves to move to an apartment.  Then he meets Safer, a home-schooled boy that lives in his new building.  Safer is sure the mysterious Mr X is up to something terrible and needs Georges's help to prove it.  In an understated way this book tackles huge issues such as trust, bullying, and belonging.  Just as there is more to Mr X, there is more than meets the eye with everyone in this story.  

I found it funny, touching, and entertaining, even for this lover of all things fantasy!