about the book
When his father loses his job, young Georges’ life is upended and they have to move into a small apartment in Brooklyn. His mother must take on extra nursing shifts, and Georges’ home life becomes all the more lonely.
Then he meets Safer. Safer is an eccentric home-schooled boy who has only known life in this Brooklyn apartment. The two outcasts form a fast friendship, and Safer’s family is warm and welcoming to Georges, offering a respite from the struggle of bullies at school and the depression of his home.
Soon Safer recruits Georges to become one of his spies. At first it seemed like a really fun game, as Georges is dispatched to spy on one of the mysterious apartment tenets who lives upstairs—but as the game seems to go on and on, Georges wonders if Safer really thinks there is something worth spying on upstairs, and whether or not Safer is a liar.
In the end, truth and deception will change the two boys’ friendship in surprising ways.
about the author
Rebecca Stead grew up in New York City. Nightly her dad read to her and recorded the story on a cassette player. After her dad tucked her in and closed the door, Rebecca replayed the stories. She loved books, but she hated to share them. Each book was her private doorway to a new world.
Being a practical person, Rebecca went to law school and became a public defender. She wrote short stories on her laptop in her spare time but did not share them. One day her son accidentally knocked the laptop to the floor and all the stories she’d written since she went to school were gone.
She decided to get serious about writing, plunging into magazine articles and a novel. She writes every day now. She finds it hard at times, like opening a door with a rusty knob. It takes work and persistence.
Rebecca has wisdom for young writers— someone will always tell you that good writers don’t use parenthesis (which is nonsense), and there really are no rules about writing! Take her advice; Rebecca knows a lot about writing. She is a Newbery Medal winner!
Rebecca still lives in New York City, not far from the place she grew up listening to stories.
Sources:
Author website
Author biography : BookBrowse
Author interview : Horn Book
Also by Rebecca Stead:
When You Reach Me. Wendy Lamb Books. 2009.
First Light. Wendy Lamb Books. 2007.
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