Several lies are told over the course of this well-written novel. Some well-meaning, some not so much. Safer, a home-schooled kid who resides within the apartment building where main character Georges' and his family have recently moved lies to rope George into an elaborate plot to expose Mr. X's criminal deeds. Turns out, Mr. X is a nice, normal man, and Safer made up the scheme to amuse himself because he suffers from agoraphobia fearing the outside world. Georges convinces a group of "nerdy misfits" to band with him to thwart the efforts of classroom bully Dallas by lying about their reactions on a made-up taste test proving where a person falls on the "weirdness" spectrum. They all give the same answer and find strength and solidarity within their lie. Finally, Georges abandons the lie he chose to believe about his mother's absence from home accepting that she wasn't simply working multiple hospital shifts to make ends meet following his father's termination from his job. Georges' mother was actually ill and had been hospitalized, a fact he couldn't bring himself to accept until the end of the novel.
Great language arts/social studies
lessons could be crafted on the topics of bullying, the moral dilemma of lying and
the resulting repercussions, coping with changes in the financial security
of families in tough economic times, spies in history, spyware/gear/apparatus,
etc. An introduction to art appreciation can also be made by studying the
work by Georges Seurat, Georges' namesake, and other post-impressionistic
artists.
No comments:
Post a Comment