The Cephalopod Coffeehouse: Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead

At our kickball game on Monday night, I shared with The Squid that I was able to read 4 books over the course of my vacation the previous week.  This was not one of the books!

I picked this up from my school library before school ended.  My teaching partner had been declaring lots of "Independent Reading" time and I invariably NEVER had a book.  Sure, I had a handful of "Encyclopedia Brown" books in my room, but I teach math and my classroom library is lacking "real" novels.

This book is also a DCF Nominee for next year and I always try to read as many as possible...or at least more than my teaching partner can!

I had happened upon Mrs. Stead's incredible 2009 novel "When You Reach Me" and LOVED it.  I decided to give this a chance.

While not as engaging or compelling for me as "When You Reach Me", the story is strong, none-the-less.  Some of the major themes from "Reach" are here, but it is a switch of genres...yet only subtly so.  Mrs. Stead has a great handle on the trials and tribulations of adolescents, as well as the lengths we all go to in order to protect ourselves and those we love.  There is lots of humor and exploration of friendship and family that ring true.  There is a little bit of a mystery/twist that fits nicely and feels organic.

It is a quick read.  I really don't think it took me more than a total of 90 minutes to finish.


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What's The Cephalopod Coffeehouse all about?  Let's ask The Squid himself!

"The idea is simple: on the last Friday of each month, post about the best book you've finished over the past month while visiting other bloggers doing the same.  In this way, we'll all have the opportunity to share our thoughts with other enthusiastic readers."

Click a link below to check things out!

1.	The Armchair Squid	2.
3.	Counterintuitivity	4.	My Creatively Random Life
5.	Scouring Monk	6.	The Life and Loves of Clare Dugmore
7.	Words Incorporated	8.	The Random Book Review
9.	Writer's Block	10.	Trisha @ WORD STUFF
11.	Bird's Nest	12.	Choice City Native
13.	Hungry Enough To Eat Six	14.	C.M. Brown
15.	Subliminal Coffee

Are we connected on Goodreads? We should be!

Hidden by Helen Frost
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a book that has grown on me. It is a FAST read. It is told in a very non-traditional way.

At first, I thought it was filled with a few too many coincidences and characters that were too "aware" (really not the right word, but...)

And then I realized it really wasn't about the coincidences nor the "awareness" of the characters...but rather about the characters and the way the story was told.

And the title has SO many meanings...my favorite of which is the one I didn't figure out on my own! The one I needed the author to explain to me in her notes.

I'm on a mission to increase my DCF reading this year...if they are all this good this year, then it will be a whole lot easier than it was reading the DCF titles last year!

View all my reviews


 If we haven't connected yet on Goodreads, click HERE and do so!  C'mon....I stayed up late to post this!