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Rebecca Stead's 2010 Newbery-winning novel When You Reach Me was a tour de force about New York City kids in which time travel played a subtle but important role: real and unexpected. Her new novel, Liar & Spy, set in Brooklyn, is a worthy successor. It tells the story of Georges, a Brooklyn seventh-grader whose parents were perhaps a little too enthusiastic about the pointillist painter Georges Seurat. Being bullied and teased about his name at school is bad enough, but Georges and his family have to give up their beloved home and move into a new apartment when his architect dad is laid off, and his mom has to work extra shifts at the hospital where she is a nurse to make up for it.
Lonely Georges meets up with Safer, a boy in his new building who says he's using his skills as a spy to keep tabs on a man known only as Mr. X. How Georges becomes drawn into Safer's world while navigating his own universe at school is the crux of the novel.
Just as she did in When You Reach Me, Stead creates characters in Liar & Spy who are totally believable as kids and appealing to readers of any age. Her stories deal with real emotions and situations, but manage to stay just south of the YA line, making them perfect for readers who find much of YA too gritty or intense. And they're funny and smart, with a voice that sounds authentically jaded and kid-like at the same time:
Stead herself is also funny and smart, as I learned during a recent phone interview from Manhattan, where she is raising her two sons, 11 and 14.
GeekMom: What made you write Liar & Spy?
Rebecca Stead: This book comes from my memory of a difficult stage. "Middle school" is used as shorthand for a time when things change. It's a time a lot of kids feel like they don't even have one good friend. I was a kid who intellectualized. [The book is] is from the point of view of a kid who told himself it didn't matter. I really wanted to explore that voice – who would that kid be?
I remember thinking as a kid: "This is not what matters." And we're telling that to kids all the time. It is a great joy to be an adult. All the things you figured out make your life so less stressful. We’re allowed as adults to create a life that we like. Kids don't have that freedom.
"It gets better" and it's good to know that. But it's also good to know that your present situation and how you face that matters a lot. Take responsibility and face things if you're unhappy.
[That said,] I don't write with a message in mind. This was a creative endeavor. You look back and figure out what it's about [afterward]. I never start with that kind of thing.
GM: The characters of Safer and his sister Candy are homeschooled, which is not often seen in fiction. As a homeschooler, I thought you did a good job of showing what it's really like. But I know there are not a lot of homeschooling families in New York City compared to upstate or the rest of the country. How did you decide to include that in your story?
RS: Really? I've met seven homeschooling families through many, many extracurricular activities such as fencing. I don't have a point of view of homeschooling. For some families, homeschooling works. New York City is the land of judging. I have one kid in private school and one kid in public school. That's what works for us.
The way I look at it is, kids have needs to be met. Who is your kid, how does your kid learn, how does your kid interact? This has worked beautifully for us. I am basically in awe of every family's ability to make decisions for their kids.
I think about this as a parent. Most of us think about it as, “It's what you do. It's necessary.” As I was writing the book, I'm thinking about my assumptions. So I had Georges think about what Safer does with his day. [It also brings up the question of] what do you need to know?
GM: At the celebration last February for the 50th anniversary of A Wrinkle in Time, you talked about how Madeline L'Engle's science fiction classic inspired you, particularly in the writing of When You Reach Me. Reading Liar and Spy I was reminded of the book Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth by E.L. Konigsberg (who is better known for writing From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler). In your new book, Safer is teaching Georges to become a spy. In Konigsberg's novel the narrator, Elizabeth, meets a mysterious new girl in school named Jennifer who claims to be a witch and agrees to become her apprentice. Was the similarity deliberate?
RS: It absolutely was an inspiration! I allude to that when Safer says to Georges “You're not a novice anymore.” I remember reading it as a kid and saying “This is a true book about friendship – how it can be mean and powerful.” It was my mission to write a confusing and true book about friendship, how friendship is not a simple thing. Even if one is manipulating the other, they're really building a friendship.
I always wanted to write a book that seemed that honest. It's complicated and it's not condescending. That's the best kind of book for kids. One that acknowledges how complicated and how dark [life is.] That's how kids really are.
As parents, we want to shelter them. But I wouldn't write for kids if it had to be all good.
Liar & Spy is available on Amazon. You can read an excerpt on the Random House website. I received an advance copy at Book Expo America.
