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!
Editorial Reviews
A Finalist for the Carnegie Medal
A New York Times Bestseller
A New York Times Notable Children's Book
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, The Horn Book Magazine, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Chicago Public Library
Named to 21 State Award Lists
"Readers will sympathize with Georges and Safer as they negotiate various familiar obstacles, but it's the celebration that will leave them exultant." --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Starred review
"The ending twists readers' entire perception of the events and creates a brilliant conclusion to an insightful novel." --School Library Journal, Starred review
"Stead's 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." --The Horn Book, Starred review
"Chock-full of fascinating characters and intelligent questions, this is as close to perfect as middle-grade novels come." --Publishers Weekly, Starred review
"[A] big-hearted, delightfully quirky tale.... Georges resolves his various issues in a way that's both ingenious and organic to the story....Original and winning" --Kirkus Reviews, Starred review
- From the Publisher
Seventh grade is not going well for Georges, the only child of an out-of-work Brooklyn architect and a nurse who named him after her favorite painter, pointillist Georges Seurat. Although Georges's mother has taken on double shifts to bring in extra income, the family has had to sell their house and move into an apartment. At school, former best friend Jason, who has started dressing like the skateboarder he isn't, now stands idly by while bullies harass Georges. Newbery Medalist Stead (When You Reach Me) expertly balances ?Georges's blue period with the introduction of the new neighbors: amateur spy Safer, and his younger sister, Candy, whose parents (in one of many hilarious details) let the kids name themselves. As homeschooled siblings, they offer refreshing perspectives on the ridiculousness of what goes on at Georges's school, including a forthcoming science unit on taste buds that the kids believe forecasts one's destiny. Safer recruits Georges to investigate and observe--using the lobbycam to track a mysterious tenant and binoculars to monitor a nest of wild green parrots--but the biggest secrets are the ones these two sensitive boys have buried in their hearts. Stead has a talent for introducing curriculum-ready topics in the most accessible ways imaginable, e.g., Seurat's painting methods become a persuasive metaphor for what Georges is going through and how he can survive it. Chock-full of fascinating characters and intelligent questions, this is as close to perfect as middle-grade novels come. Ages 9-12. Agent: Faye Bender, Faye Bender Literary Agency. (Aug.)
- Publishers Weekly
Gr 5-8--Georges's life is turned upside down when his father loses his job, forcing his mother to take on extra nursing shifts and prompting the family to move from their house into an unfamiliar Brooklyn apartment. At school, Georges is a bit of an outcast, having been abandoned by his one and only friend and often the subject of bullies' taunts. Then he sees a sign advertising a Spy Club and meets Safer, a homeschooled loner who lives in his building, and Safer's warm, welcoming, and quirky family offers him respite from the stress at home. Together the boys track a mysterious building resident who Safer is sure is hiding a sinister secret. As the investigation progresses, Georges grows increasingly uncomfortable with Safer's actions. Stead has written a lovely, quiet, and layered novel that explores friendship in all its facets. She particularly examines truths, secrets, deceptions, and imagination and whether these can destroy or ultimately strengthen a friendship. The ending twists readers' entire perception of the events and creates a brilliant conclusion to an insightful novel.--Naphtali L. Faris, Missouri State Library, Jefferson City
- School Library Journal
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 once-best 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)
- Kirkus Reviews