Even though Gary Paulsen may be best know for his survival stories (Hatchet and the rest of the books following Brian), he may be as popular in my classroom for his humor.  I predict that Liar, Liar (Scholastic 2011) will be a hit in my classroom.

Kevin has it all figured out.  Why tell the truth when a little lie–or two or three or ten–can make everyone’s life a little easier.  After all, it’s not easy being the youngest of three kids in a family that might be unraveling.  It’s not easy convincing Tina that he would be her perfect boyfriend.  It’s not long before all his lies have grown out of control and Kevin must face the unthinkable–telling the truth.

Despite his chronic lying, I like Kevin.  He is actually a good student and proud of it.  Even when he plans to skip class to pursue Tina, he makes up all the work he missed and even does extra work to get back into his teachers’ good graces.  His heart is in the right place even when his schemes have unintended consequences.  And when Kevin is confronted with those consequences, he doesn’t run or hide from them.  He takes them on and owns up to his role.  As a result, he is going to be quite  busy in the near future:  debating the city council, completing extra projects, babysitting the neighbor boy, writing sports stories for the paper, painting sets for the school drama, and joining the wrestling team

My only regret is that I don’t have the next books in this series on deck to read next.