In fact, unlike mopey Georges, they’re all quite content. Seemingly always at home, puttering around their sprawling apartment - neither of the two younger children attends school - the siblings bring to mind an outer-borough version of Salinger’s Glass family, if a less suicidally inclined one. These include the similarly aged and oddly named Safer, the building’s resident dog walker as well as a budding spy Safer’s candy-obsessed younger sister, Candy and their bird-watching older brother, Pigeon. Cast out of his own home after his father loses his job and the family sells their house to make ends meet - and cast off by his best friend in favor of the popular clique - Georges finds himself living in a new apartment building with a cast of eccentric neighbors. Part coming-of-age tale, part mystery, “Liar & Spy” takes place in contemporary Brooklyn and revolves around a seventh-grade loner and misfit named Georges. What the two do share is a mood of shimmery unrest. Unlike her Newbery Medal-winning novel, “When You Reach Me,” in which time travel is the subtext to all the interwoven story lines, Rebecca Stead’s new book, “Liar & Spy,” is firmly grounded in the here and now.
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