Debra Garfinkel and April Patten’s new mid­dle-grade nov­el begins with a mov­ing homage to Judy Blume. As in Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Mar­garet, Rebec­ca Weiss asks for divine help with her prob­lems. Like Mar­garet Simon, she is con­fused, but she also uses wry and self-dep­re­cat­ing humor to nav­i­gate con­flicts. (Unlike Moses, had she seen a burn­ing bush, she would have called 911.) Her upcom­ing bat mitz­vah and alien­ation from her best friend aren’t uncom­mon, but her mother’s death from can­cer is over­whelm­ing, the back­ground to all the stress in her life. Believ­able char­ac­ters and a well-paced nar­ra­tive tell the truth about a dif­fi­cult sub­ject: lying. 

Jew­ish con­tent is framed with real­is­tic details. Rebecca’s fam­i­ly con­fronts finan­cial hard­ships. Her father is a preschool teacher, and unre­solved med­ical debt is a bur­den for him, Rebec­ca, and her old­er broth­er, Noah. The prospect of a low-key bat mitz­vah par­ty, dif­fer­ent from the lav­ish cel­e­bra­tions she has come to expect, is painful for her. Yet there are rich­er Jew­ish ele­ments, includ­ing spe­cif­ic ref­er­ences to her parasha, and to the sig­nif­i­cance of the She­ma and Mod­eh Ani prayers. The chap­ter enti­tled ​“What My Torah Read­ing Means to Me” brings togeth­er the Jew­ish themes, and is a beau­ti­ful­ly cal­i­brat­ed expres­sion of Rebecca’s deep­est feelings.

When Nik­ki Davis moves to Rebecca’s neigh­bor­hood, both girls have the chance to devel­op a new friend­ship based on mutu­al sup­port. Nikki’s sin­gle moth­er had been work­ing for a wealthy fam­i­ly, allow­ing them to live in an upscale Port­land, Ore­gon neigh­bor­hood. But cir­cum­stances have changed, and the elab­o­rate mesh of lies that Nik­ki had invent­ed, in order to fit in with her super­fi­cial friends, has become use­less. Reli­gion is impor­tant to Nikki’s fam­i­ly, as it is to Rebec­ca. Nik­ki and her moth­er attend church, and Nik­ki refers to New Tes­ta­ment teach­ings when mak­ing choic­es. At the same time, she has devised a strat­e­gy of how to sur­vive by telling lies. These prag­mat­ic guide­lines, includ­ing ​“blend in the truth with your lies,” and ​“stick with your lie no mat­ter what,” have become a trap. When she tells a par­tic­u­lar­ly out­ra­geous false­hood to Rebec­ca, Nikki’s insen­si­tiv­i­ty is both shock­ing and entire­ly understandable.

Rebecca’s approach to dis­hon­esty is less sys­tem­at­ic, but no less com­pro­mis­ing. Try­ing to impress her crush, the tru­ly won­der­ful Josh Gold­ham­mer, she mis­rep­re­sents the facts about her fam­i­ly. Lag­ging bat mitz­vah prepa­ra­tion traps her into less-than-hon­est updates to her father and Can­tor Segal. Adults are not per­fect in this sto­ry; they try their best but some­times fail. The cantor’s occa­sion­al impa­tience and Mr. Weiss’s con­stant praise of his accom­plished son pro­vide a con­text that helps read­ers under­stand Rebecca’s own mistakes.

There are many nov­els for young read­ers about failed friend­ships and dis­ap­point­ing par­ents. Rules for Liars stands out for its hon­esty, humor, and emo­tion­al depth. Itis high­ly rec­om­mend­ed and includes a selec­tion of Rebec­ca and Nikki’s cook­ie recipes.