The Readers and Writers Paradise

The real scoop on middle grade books.

Swindle Series

Unleashed by Gordon Korman Review

by 2 Comments

Gordon Korman’s Swindle Series has been going on for quite a long time, and now the seventh book of the series has been released: Unleashed, in which Griffin Bing’s (aka The Man with The Plan) school is going an invention contest, and he’s competing against Darren Vader. There is thievery, breaking into government buildings, and knocking off the power grid for miles around

Summary

When Griffin starts getting congratulatory remarks at school one morning he can’t figure out why. Then he realizes it’s because his school is competing in a statewide invention contest. Because Griffin’s dad is an inventor, everyone figures Griffin is going to ace the contest. The problem: Griffin doesn’t know the first thing about inventing.

His worst nemesis, Darren Vader, however, goads him into the contest, and they even make a bet that whoever wins will write a script that the other will be forced to read to the entire school. Now Griffin really doesn’t want to lose.

When Melissa Dukakis, one of Griffin’s best friends and tech wizard, signs up for the contest for herself, Griffin is not pleased; he was expecting Melissa to help him. She’s about to agree, but then their friend Pitch comes in, fresh off not being allowed on the wrestling team because she’s a girl, and levels an outrageous accusation at Griffin that he’s being discriminatory. Melissa doesn’t know what to do, but now their group has split into two; the boys and the girls.

Savannah is having trouble with Luthor constantly chasing after a delivery truck, so Melissa invents a machine that emits a high-pitched noise whenever Luthor starts chasing that keeps him off the road. Savannah is overjoyed, but that doesn’t last too long when Melissa’s invention disappears.

Not that Griffin’s invention is going along too well, either. He’s trying to invent a silent vacuum cleaner, but for some reason it’s knocks out the electricity everywhere when he turns it on. Finally the team gets back together to help find Melissa’s stolen invention. Melissa is shattered and refuses to talk to anyone anymore.

The gang thinks Vader might have stolen the Hover Handler, as Melissa calls it, but he’s so confident about his own professionally made invention that they realize he’s not even worried that anyone could pose a threat to him. Their next target is their new neighbor, Mr. Hartman; or Heartless, as Griffin has dubbed him. When he moves in he no longer allows the kids to take a shortcut across his property to school, making an extra twenty minutes of work for them. He’s very suspicious of the government, and even worries that the Hover Handler was actually a means of spying on his house.

When they hear the noise of the Hover Handler emitting from Mr. Hartman’s house, they spy on it and eventually are forced to raid it in an attempt to take it back. But when they realize the noise is really coming from a piece of mechanical equipment, they wonder whether Mr. Hartman was right about the government all along: Did Uncle Sam really steal Melissa’s Hover Handler?

Review

Unleashed was good, combining typical Korman action and excitement with awesome plot twists and outrageous characters. The book also showed that the series may be growing a little old and not be as fresh as it once was.

What made the Swindle Series continually good, despite the fact that this is the seventh book, published seven years after the first one, is that Korman has managed to construct an entirely new and exciting plot in every book. I was a little wary about the last book, Jackpot, but Korman managed to keep it new and inject it with an entirely different storyline. The overall theme is not new here, with the plot of the team looking for a stolen item basically taken from Framed, to which the plot bears many similarities.

Griffin becoming an inventor, and his invention succeeding in a way he doesn’t want it to by sucking all the power for itself is hilarious. Many new characters in this book were also very funny, including Mr. Hartman, who has the floor plan of every government building a 100-mile radius, and the U.S. government itself.

The characters are becoming more important in the series, in the past being mostly a backdrop to the plot, and now being interesting and real enough to make an interesting story just on their own. It seems to me that Korman probably didn’t have too much trouble writing this one, since he’s gotten to know the team so well, but there are still tons of jokes and other cool things sprinkled throughout the pages. While the arc of the story may have been somewhat recycled, the characters and the actual details of the plot make up for it easily, Korman clearly giving 100% into making the whole book engaging and funny. We are still seeing new sides and actions from the characters all the time, instead of just recycling the same things, which continues to make the books interesting.

One weird thing is that Victor Phoenix, a big new character in the last book, is simply missing. Korman told me that he didn’t suspect anyone would miss Victor, and that the story isn’t really going in a continuous order. I’ve seen other people raising questions about Victor’s absence, however, and it is kind of shocking to see him simply gone, considering the fact that while Griffin is still the leader, Victor was sitting at lunch with the team through all of the previous book, and it only reasons that he still would.

 I think the storyline works a lot better without Victor (after all, who wants more than one book of a guy whose main characteristic is that he was bullied?), but it would’ve been helpful to give some explanation like that he was on vacation or moved away or something like that. Victor’s disappearing act isn’t really that big of an idea, though, and it doesn’t really impact the strength of the book apart from being a little disappointing.

Overall, I love Unleashed, and any middle grade kid will like it. All the books in this series are pretty much equally good, with the possible exception of Showoff, and though some say that the series is getting old, Korman continually proves them wrong. He has said there is at least one more book, which I’ll be looking forward to. This is the first one that slightly lacked originality, but it’s still a great addition and it’ll be interesting to see other adventures Korman has up his sleeve for the team led by The Man with The Plan.

 

The Readers and Writers Paradise Podcast Episode 003: Swindle Series by Gordon Korman

by Leave a Comment

Hey guys thank you so much for coming on to my website. Today (like every Wednesday) I have a new episode of The Readers and Writers Paradise Podcast to share with you. On the podcast I have all kinds of information about books, interviews with authors and book reviewers, and more.

In this episode I’m really excited to share with you my review of the books in the Swindle Series by Gordon Korman. Long-time readers of my blog know that Gordon Korman is probably my favorite kids book author and the Swindle Series is also one of my favorites. I go over all the information about the series in this podcast, so let me know what you think of this episode 🙂

Right click to download

Jackpot (Swindle Series) by Gordon Korman Review

by 5 Comments

Jackpot by Gordon Korman is the sixth and latest installment in the exciting Swindle Series. This series has sold millions of copies and has been adored by kids all over the world. They are standalone books, so you can read one of them and not miss anything. They have the same characters, however, and so I’d recommend starting at the beginning to learn some of the background.

I honestly wasn’t super excited to read Jackpot. After all, it’s the sixth book about the same kids doing basically the same thing. Korman, however, was already a step ahead of me, and wrote this book in a completely different way from the rest of the series. While the other books were primarily based on action, this book was driven by characters.

Summary

The book starts off with Griffin Bing and his friends learning about a lottery ticket worth $30 million. The catch: It’s lost, and is about to expire. Griffin is The Man with the Plan of the group, and everyone else has their own special talents that make them great friends and an effective team.

Griffin decides to use the lottery ticket to get back at Darren Vader, a school bully who is always trying to get in on their plans, and the rest of the team agrees. They make up a fake newspaper article about the ticket being somewhere in Cedarville, and, as expected, the money-grubbing Vader goes after the money and starts searching for it all around town, diving through dumpsters to get to it.

Unfortunately, a lot of other people take Vader’s idea and before long there a dozen people digging through the city in hopes of becoming a millionaire. The police put a stop to it, and also figure out that it was Griffin and his friends who played the trick. They get community service hours for playing the trick on Vader, and everyone starts to look at Griffin Bing as though he is a bully. After the event, the principle calls a school conference on bullying and Vader stands up and accuses Griffin of bullying him.

Anyone who knows the situation will be aware that Darren is the real bully. For people unfamiliar with the situation, however, it’s easy to take Griffin for a bully. That’s what happens to Victor Phoenix, a new kid. He breaks into Griffin’s group, but treats Griffin terribly. In fact, he’s starting to take Griffin’s place!

Griffin can’t figure out why, The Man with the Plan skips school and goes to Victor’s old school to do research. At the school, he learns that Victor was bullied terribly. He also learns that Victor changed his last name. Griffin realizes that Victor believed Darren when he called Griffin a bully and that’s why he’s treating him poorly. Griffin can see that Victor is deceiving all of his friends to try and join the group, but when Griffin tells them, they have nothing but nice things to say about Victor. Griffin stops hanging out with his friends, and instead starts sitting alone at lunch.

Vader is still after the money, however, and he recruits Griffin to try and help him find it. Griffin never thought he’d team up with the likes of Darren Vader, but without his friends he doesn’t have much else to do. They go to the lottery store where the ticket was sold and check the surveillance camera. They start trying to track down the people who may have the ticket, but the owner doesn’t know any of their names or addressees, so they don’t have much to go on.

By this time Griffin has also taken in Savannah’s dog Luthor. Savannah has taken in Victor’s cat Penelope, and they do not get along. Savannah blames Luthor and is happy to give him away for a little while. Griffin feels a companionship with Luthor; both of them have been driven away from their friends by Victor.

Vader also recruits Victor and “his” team to try and find the lottery ticket. With Melissa’s computer skills, they are able to figure out where the prospects live, and find them. In the end, Griffin, Darren, and Victor and the team all end up at the last possible person who could have the ticket at the same time, right before the deadline of the ticket. Will they find the ticket? Will they cash it in on time? Will Griffin ever get his friends back?

What I Thought

The beginning of Jackpot is written a little weirdly, in that it does a lot of telling and relies on some pretty unlikely things to happen. After a while, though, the story settles down and becomes very good.

This seems to be Korman’s first foray into a character-based story. Instead of humor or action to keep us turning the pages, it’s our identification with Griffin that does it. Griffin feels misunderstood and mistreated by his friends, and Korman does a good job of making you genuinely feel for him. The reader wants to see Griffin feeling better and united with his friends again.

Of course, there is action too with everyone trying to find and cash in the lottery ticket before it’s too late. After all, it’s a Gordon Korman book! The action is almost secondary, however, but is also well done and a big part of the story.

It’s good for Korman to add the character development at this point of the story, because up to this point it was just the plot that was driving it and it was getting a little boring because I didn’t care about the characters very much. I still am not super attached with them after six books, but it’s more than before. This book will keep the series alive.

This is a new type of writing for Korman, and he definitely makes some mistakes. Parts of the book are all over the place. Is it still a book kids will love? Yes, it is. I’ve never heard of a kid not liking a book by Gordon Korman, and this book is going to be no exception.

Thank you for reading this review and if you’d like to purchase the book you can do so through this link. You can also like my Facebook page or subscribe through email below to hear about more cool books.

Enter your email address:

Swindle by Gordon Korman Review

by 8 Comments

Swindle by Gordon Korman has become a modern classic. I was in fifth grade in 2008 when it first came out, and Gordon Korman was coming to visit my school! In preparation, our librarian had us read some books by Gordon Korman, and I was instantly hooked!

The common refrain of kids about Swindle is, “I finished it in three days!” Well, guess what; I finished Swindle the very night I got it! By the time Gordon Korman came to my school, everyone was in love with him, and tons of kids I know have read it.
Swindle has sold millions of copies and spawned follow-up books Zoobreak, Framed, Showoff, and Hideout. It has also been adapted into a movie by Nickelodeon (which I thought was rather subpar, especially compared to the book, by the way). So why is Swindle so popular? What makes this one of the best-selling kids books of recent times?

Also check out the video trailer on Scholastic’s website. It’s quite well done.

Summary

Swindle starts off with the main character Griffin Bing and his best friend, Ben Slovak, camping out in an old abandoned mansion. It was going to get knocked down the next morning, and Griffin had come up with a plan to protest by having some of his fellow seventh-graders camp out with him at the building.Tons of people said they were going to show up, but ultimately, he and Ben were left alone.

While exploring the house, Griffin finds a 1920 Babe Ruth baseball card. His father is an inventor who has fallen on tough times recently, and his family is facing the possibility of having to move away. Griffin is greatly upset by this. He doesn’t want to be separated from his town. Mainly, though, he doesn’t want to leave Ben.

Griffin is hopeful that the baseball card will be able to solve his family’s financial woes. After all, he’s heard of old baseball cards selling for a lot of money, and this card is still in good condition. When he takes it to Palomino’s Emporium, a shop owned by S. Wendell Palomino, the collector tells him and Ben that it’s actually a knockoff of the card from the sixties. Griffin is crestfallen, but sells it for $120.

A couple of days later, Griffin is furious to discover on TV that S. Wendell Palomino (now nicknamed “Swindle”) had swindled him out of an original 1920 card that was worth $974,000! $974,000 would mean the world to Griffin; not only being able to stay in Cedarville, but it would also put his parents constant arguments about money to rest forever.

Griffin can’t stand it when adults take advantage of kids. As Korman says, “The main theme of the book is kids taking matters into their own hands.” Luckily, Griffin is known as “The Man With the Plan” around town because he’s constantly making crazy and adventurous plans to accomplish whatever goal he wants to. In this case, he knows that if he wants that card back there’s only one thing to do: He’s going to have to steal it back.

To steal the card back from this thief is going to take the best plan of them all. Swindle has a tough guard dog named Luthor, a high-tech security system, a fence, and a safe. Griffin knows he and Ben can’t do it alone. Griffin compiles a team of people from his school whose talents he believes he can use to complete the heist.

Griffin and his team go to work trying to outfox Swindle. It comes down to an incredibly exciting ending, with the police eventually intervening. This book creates lots of exciting questions. Do they get the card back? Will Griffin’s family have to move away? What are the ethical consequences of what they’re doing? Who will ultimately win in the battle of Griffin and his friends versus Swindle?

Review

This is a great, action-packed book. The characters are interesting and each have their own personalities. Griffin and his friends are regular, independent kids trying to make their way in the adult world. They also have an enemy named Darren Vader who forcibly joins their team and no surprise causes trouble. The team has to be extremely intelligent and good at what they’re doing if they want to snag the card.

This is a very original story, although it is the kind of theme that could be expected from Gordon Korman. Griffin isn’t about to let a crook like Swindle make off with what was his baseball card. Griffin has never seen an object he considers immovable, and although his team may seem to be made up of a bunch of random kids, he has carefully chosen them for the skills that possess that will be necessary to the heist. Swindle may have the baseball card under very careful guard, but that’s just another challenge to be solved for The Man with the Plan.

Kids just love Swindle. I’ve spoken to lots of kids who have read it, and that’s the only impression I’ve gotten. I highly recommend it, and all the books in this series.

Thank you for reading this review and if you’d like to purchase the book you can do so through this link. You can also like my Facebook page or subscribe through email below.

Enter your email address:

Hideout by Gordon Korman Review

by 4 Comments

Hideout by Gordon Korman is the fifth and latest book in the super popular Swindle Series. Gordon Korman is one of my favorite authors and a very accomplished one, having over 75 titles to his name. In fact, the book Swindle was recently turned into a movie by Nickelodeon.

In Hideout, Korman continues the Swindle Series with another exciting adventure. In the first book, Griffin Bing and his friends confronted an unethical man they nickname “Swindle” who stole a $1.2 million baseball card from them.

After exposing Swindle and ruining his shop, they also take his guard dog, Luthor. Luthor is a vicious dog, but Griffin’s friend Savannah is practically an animal whisperer and becomes good friends with him.

Here is my video review

In this book, Swindle is back, and he wants to take possession of his dog. Of course, Savannah isn’t about to let that happen. During this book the kids are away for summer camp, and they have to coordinate an extremely complicated series of plans in order to keep Swindle’s hired goons from taking back the dog. Who better to coordinate it than Griffin Bing, the “Man with the Plan.”

Griffin and his friends are all stationed at three different summer camps. Swindle sends his goons after each one, and they have to hide the dog from both the attackers and the rest of the camp. The book is divided into three different sections or hideouts, each one during the time when Luthor is at their respective camp.

The book starts off with Luthor going with Griffin and Savannah to Camp Ebony Lake. After their location is compromised, they switch the dog off to Melissa and Logan. Melissa joined the group because of her impressive computer skills, and Logan because he’s a good actor.

They eventually hand Luthor to Pitch and Ben. Pitch is a great climber, and Ben is the small spaces guy and Griffin’s best friend. Each member of the gang has their own speciality which allows them to work well together as a team.

This is far from a serious book throughout. Although they are being chased by a criminal, they book is interspersed with the fun personalities of each of the characters and tons of humor. The ending, where Swindle and his goons confront Griffin and his gang, is a hilarious and captivating tale.

This is a very well written book and another great addition to the series. It’s hard to keep coming up with hit stand-alone books when you reach the fifth book in a series with the same characters. Korman manages to do it, however.

Honestly, though, I’m not too excited for the next book in the series, Jackpot. If I was Korman, I would end it right now, because I feel like it’s starting to get a little long in the tooth. How many times can you get excited reading about the same kids having some variation of basically the same adventure?

Still, that does not detract from the strength of this book. I’d highly recommend for preteens (around 9-12) to read it. Notice the excellent reviews on Amazon. There is literally not a single person who says they or their children did not like the book. Korman’s books are guaranteed to be kid pleasers, and this book is no exception.

Before reading this book, though, I’d recommend reading Swindle. Although it’s not necessary to understand and enjoy the story, it helps a lot to understand the conflict. Plus, Swindle is an amazing book.

Overall, there’s really not much criticism I can give this book. For the majority of his career, Gordon Korman was a writer of humorous books. It was only in the late 90’s that he switched over to reading action/adventure. I feel like now he’s managed to merge these two styles together to create a suspenseful but hilarious book. This is classic Korman at his best.

Thank you for reading this review and if you’d like to purchase the book you can do so through this link . You can also like my Facebook page or subscribe through email below.

Enter your email address:

Zoobreak by Gordon Korman: Review

by 8 Comments

Zoobreak by Gordon Korman is the second book in the Swindle series, immediately following the wildly popular inaugural book Swindle. In Swindle, the main character Griffin Bing and his best friend, Ben Slovak, stumble upon a 1920 Babe Ruth baseball card while sleeping in an abandoned old house that’s about to be knocked down the next morning. Griffin’s family is having financial problems, and he doesn’t know much about baseball cards, but an original 1920 Babe Ruth in mint condition has to be a lot of money. So they take it a collector to see if it’s worth anything and the guy (S. Wendell Palomino, nicknamed Swindle) lies that it’s just a cheap knockoff and buys it for a pittance. It turns out the card is worth $974,000. What the guy did is unethical, it’s sleazy, but there’s no way to prove he lied. Swindle is going to get away with it.

But Griffin is the Man with the Plan, and he and his team of friends come up with a plan to steal the card back. It’s a very exciting and action-packed book, and one I highly recommend.

So what did Gordon do to follow up on that success? He wrote Zoobreak, a book that expands on the theme of kids fighting against unfairness by taking matters into their own hands. In Swindle, there was a million dollar baseball card. In Zoobreak, there’s Savannah’s pet monkey. Savannah’s animal has been stolen, and she is simply not going to stand for that. To make matters right, Griffin Bing will have to pull off his wildest caper yet.

It is helpful to note that these books can be read in any order. While I would advise beginning with the first book, it is possible to pick up the series anywhere.

Summary

As mentioned above, Savannah’s monkey Cleopatra is stolen. When her dog Luthor goes looking and comes back with a banana, she is certain the animal was kidnapped. But that’s not evidence she can hand over to the police.

To make matters worse, Griffin’s best friend Ben Slovak has narcolepsy, a disease which makes him susceptible to falling asleep at any time of the day. And his condition is getting worse. His parents are getting ready to send him away to a boarding school where he can get help, which would be an obvious catastrophe. Even though Griffin’s dad tries to convince him this is the best thing for Ben, Griffin knows the only reason Ben is going is because he’s a kid, and his parents want him to go. Unfortunately, solving narcolepsy is not one of the skills of The Man with the Plan.

Later on when Savannah locates her monkey at a flying zoo, she is livid. But she has no proof the monkey is hers. Savannah is sure of it, and her prowess with animals is so well-known that most everyone is willing to accept it as true. Still, to get the DNA testing would take a year and cost a lot of money. With the way this zoo treats their animals, there’s reason to suspect Cleo will not even survive that long. But Savannah is forced to leave her monkey there. There’s nothing she can do.

But where other people see closed doors, The Man with the Plan only sees opportunity. That zoo stole Savannah’s monkey, and just like they took back the million dollar baseball card in Swindle, this time they’re taking back something even more valuable. But every good planner knows that no plan can fit every situation, and there’s definitely no way to anticipate the insane situation these characters find themselves in.

Review

This book is 230 pages with large font, written for kids around the age of 9-14. The writing is very good and the book is fast-paced and exciting as is usual with this series.

This is a great book, with Griffin and his friends being firmly committed to taking down the vicious animal thief by whatever means necessary. The team certainly makes good on Griffin’s stated goal of standing up to unfairness in this one.

Click here to buy the book Zoobreak by Gordon Korman. You can also check out my Facebook Page or subscribe via email below for more book reviews.

Enter your email address: