Liar, Liar [Hardcover]

Barthe DeClements (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1998 | Age Level: 8 and up

Sixth-grader Gretchen and her friends begin to have problems when a new girl starts telling some very believable, but untrue, stories.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Everything had been easy until sixth grade," laments DeClements's (Nothing's Fair in the Fifth Grade) refreshingly candid heroine at the opening of this thoughtful if inconsistent novel. The source of Gretchen's difficulty is Marybelle, a new girl in school whose first misstep comes during a "demonstration talk," when she shaves off part of wealthy, pretty Susan's thick strawberry blond hair and insists it was a mistake. The lonely and troubled Marybelle continues to weave a hopelessly tangled web until?in a final fateful deceit?she tells the other kids at school that her mother caught Gretchen stealing something from their house. Understandably miserable when her friends then turn against her, Gretchen relies for support on her sympathetic, very credible family. The tale's climax is an eerie, intervention-like encounter, masterminded by Gretchen's half-brother, in which her classmates confront a humiliated Marybelle. Though DeClements's central characters are strong, some of the adults are two-dimensional (e.g., Gretchen's mom is pretty, flighty and obsessed with getting married; Susan's mother is exacting and elitist), and her plotting is occasionally strained (why would Gretchen's friends believe Marybelle over her?). Despite these shortcomings, the author delivers a hard-hitting message about truth-telling. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 4^-6. Gretchen likes all the kids in her sixth-grade class, but when Marybelle moves to town, things change. Marybelle's class demonstration of hair clippers "accidentally" ends with a classmate's hair lying in clumps on the floor. Worse still, Marybelle tells convincing lies about Gretchen and her best friend, sowing seeds of doubt between them and breaking up their relationship. In an ending that owes more to wish fulfillment than to realism, Gretchen's big brother acts as an unlikely deus ex machina, putting things right when he gathers the characters for a revelation of truth. DeClements is right on target, however, as she captures the sixth-grade milieu with a truth that is awful in its precision: the first-year teacher who changes from freewheeling and fun to fearful and insecure; the shifting circles of cliques that exclude former friends; and the painful realization that the damage caused by lies and rumors can't be completely undone. Carolyn Phelan

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Cavendish Children's Books; 1st edition (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761450211
• ISBN-13: 978-0761450214
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,782,781 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Liar, Liar, March 26, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Liar, Liar (Hardcover)

This is a really good book. It's about a girl named Gretchen Griswald and her best friend a girl named Susan. A new girl in Gretchen's class Marybelle has a bad start with Susan and Marybelle, by shaving part of Susan's hair off! When Susan gets sick Marybelle tries to get Gretchen as a friend, but then starts to tell bad things about people. She said that she saw Susan STEAL from a store a pair of earings and Susan claimed that it was her sisters and she borrowed it. Who should she believe? Then after Susan finally gets better, she starts treating Gretchen differently. Even her whole family does. Even some of her friends. Gretchen soon knew that Marybelle, was telling lies about her. Gretchen's brother tells her liars trap themselves in their own webs, yet Gretchen relizes how good at she is at telling these lies, but her friends believe Marybelle. So, Gretchen tries to make friends with another girl, and does suceed but will she get her old friends back? If you read it, you'll see! I highly recomend this book.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Liar, May 2, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Liar, Liar (Hardcover)

The main characters in Liar, Liar are Marybelle, Grizzy (Gretchen). They are in 6th grade. Grizzy is a nice girl who is kind to Marybelle. The problem is that Marybelle is a liar. She only lies because she wants to have many friends.
Marybelle wants Crystal and Susan for friends. Marybelle steals other friends from Grizzy... Grizzy likes Spider and Amy since Marybelle stole her other friends. Amy is a new friend for Grizzy.
Marybelle tells a lot lies to people. Most people believed her and her wish came true that everyone believed her and she had many friends...
Marybelle can be a nice girl but she needs to stop lying and she is guilty of not telling the truth just to make friends. She can be nice, if she stop lying to people for stupid reasons.
You should read Liar, Liar because it is so good... And I think it is for older people like teenagers and pre teenagers... It is an awsome book... It is based on a true experiences of what happens when a person lies...