Swindle (novel)
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| Author | Gordon Korman |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Adventure Children's |
| Publisher | Scholastic |
Publication date | 2008 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 250-252 |
| ISBN | 978-0-439-90345-5 |
| Followed by | *Zoobreak |
Swindle is a 2008 book by Gordon Korman.
Plot
The book is about a 6th grader named Griffin Bing who has found the answer to his family's financial problems when he discovers an extremely rare Babe Ruth baseball card in an old Rockford house with his best friend Ben. However, when he tries to sell it to a local dealer named S. Wendell Palomino, (nicknamed Swindle, hence the title) he is told it is a replica and is tricked out of it. He and Ben try to go steal it back from Swindle's shop, only to find that it's gone, and they have to break into Swindle's house. Now, in order to get the card back, Griffin must gather a team of local students with unique skills to break into Palomino's heavily guarded home to retrieve the card before the big auction where Swindle plans to sell the card. The team consists of 7 people (including Ben and Griffin): Savannah the Dog whisperer, to get past Swindle's crazy big Doberman/Guard Dog Luthor; Logan the actor, to distract Swindle's eagle eyed neighbor who never goes inside; Antonia "Pitch" Benson the "born to climb" girl, to scale the skylight in Swindle's house; Darren Vader who the others had no choice but to add to the team, for he threatened to rat them out (But Darren proved to be useful pulling people up the skylight); Melissa the socially impaired computer geek, who was used to break into Swindle's UltraTech alarm system. The tension is piled with an unexpected visit from the auctioneer, yet another even more menacing guard dog, and a betrayal from the person who begged to be in the group. The book was followed by multiple sequels, titled Zoobreak, Framed!, Showoff, Hideout , Jackpot and "Unleashed."