Liar, Liar: The Theory, Practice and Destructive Properties of Deception

January 10, 2011
"I'm the best liar you'll ever meet," announces the glib narrator of this funny and touching novel. Fourteen-year-old Kevin inventively bends the truth to his advantage—or so he thinks. He convinces his partner on a school project that he suffers from "chronic, degenerative, relapsing-remitting imflammobetigoitis" so that she'll do all the work, pits his older siblings against each other, and surreptitiously asks his father's permission to go to a concert after his mother says no. When Kevin falls madly in love with a classmate and decides that he needs more free time to win her over, he fabricates elaborate excuses for skipping classes and feigns interest in student government to try to wiggle his way into her "inner circle" ("Like any good military mind, I decided that a direct assault was the wrong move"). In an affecting scene, the four-year-old who Kevin babysits awakens him to the value of telling the truth, setting him on a quest to untangle the web he has woven. Kevin's grappling with family troubles adds further emotional dimension to Paulsen's novel. Ages 8–12.

February 1, 2011

Eighth grader Kevin has a talent most adults can't fully appreciate: He's a gifted liar. He tells adults what they want to hear, that he's done his homework, had a great day at school and there aren't any dirty dishes in his room. Unfortunately, faced with a team project with a very focused, annoying classmate, he lets the lies get away from him. To avoid working with Katie, he tells her he has a severe chronic illness. In order to get closer to his major crush, Tina, he begins to skip classes, providing teachers with creative (but surely unbelievable) excuses. On a roll, he hits a little closer to home, playing his teen siblings off each other, then inadvertently widening the gap in his parents' relationship by lying to both of them. Each lie encourages another until, finally, the truth comes out and Kevin must face the consequences of his creative storytelling. This brief, humorous effort will appeal to reluctant middle-school readers, who will recognize the truth behind witty Kevin's inventive deceptions. (Fiction. 9-12)

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June 1, 2011

Gr 6-9-Kevin, 14, believes that lying is just good manners. He tells people what they want to hear and believes that in doing so he makes their lives run smoother, fosters harmony, teaches lessons, and, every once in a while, gets his own way. With all his practice, the eighth grader has become a consummate liar. When Kevin decides to leap from minor fibs to huge whoppers, he finds that keeping things under control is exceedingly difficult. His goal to make his crush fall in love with him by the end of the week gets more arduous with every mammoth falsehood. As his fabrications spread and begin to hurt his friends and loved ones, Kevin has to decide how to come clean. Kevin is a typical Paulsen character with a good heart and good intentions, who just doesn't get things right on the first try. This quick, comical tale is sure to be a hit. As usual, the author plants a moral at the conclusion, but readers won't mind because of the funny plot and over-the-top characters. A sure bet for struggling and reluctant readers.-Terry Ann Lawler, Phoenix Public Library, AZ

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2011
Grades 5-8 In this glib take on a classic morality theme, Margaret A. Edwards Awardwinner Paulsens story follows the web of deceit eigth-grader Kevin spins, primarily so he can get closer to suddenly irresistible Tina. With a clever bit of insight into human psychology, Kevins got it worked out that lying is simply the best policy to keep the social order flowing smoothly: people only listen to what they want to hear, so I only tell them that . . . . If you look at it from the right point of view, lying is just good manners. The week starts with Kevin convincing a classmate he has relapsing-remitting inflammobetigoitis so shell carry his weight on a class project, winds through his increasingly convoluted set of antic schemes, and ends with everyone becoming wise to him, before he goes about setting things right again. A quick read with bundles of laughs and a few solid but understated lessons to take away.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2011
Kevin is an intriguing eighth grader. A rationalizing liar, he lies to expose hypocrisy, to be loyal to his friends, to ease social interactions, to be kind, and, oh yes, to get out of his homework. Is this the dark study of a psychopath? Not at all. Kevin is like a tall-tale teller from a folktale, and Paulsen maintains a light, quippy, cartoonish touch in this story of how Kevin falls in love and discovers some situations in which lying doesn't work. A satisfying ending sees Kevin hoist by his own petard, and thus the moral universe is kept intact. The humor (a rock band called Buket of Puke; the observation that little kids smell like "blue cheese and day-old socks and dog butt") seems more nine- than fourteen-year-old, but the book is a spot-on portrait of what nine-year-olds think fourteen is like and therefore apt to appeal to the short-chapter crowd at which the book is aimed. sarah ellis

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)