Swindle by Gordon Korman

Swindle
Written by Gordon Korman
Published by Scholastic 2008

This book is a Blue Stem Award nominee. It shows the life of a sixth grade boy, Griffin Bing, who is faced with a dilemma. His parents have run out of money and are forced to see their home. He finds a Babe Ruth baseball card in an old abandoned house (I'm not going to tell you why he is in there! Read the book!). He took it to Palomino's Emporium of Collectibles. Griffin thought it had to be worth thousands of dollars, but unfortunately Mr. Palomino only gave him a $120. Devastated by this he gave up on thinking their was a chance they would stay in town. After a turn of events and some careful planning, a group of sixth graders used their talents to retrieve what is rightfully theirs.

This book was very enjoyable! It made some great points on friendship and how we stick with people we care about even when some of their ideas are a tad crazy. It tells the reader to never give up on what he or she believes and good things happen when you least expect them to happen. This book brought up a great moral dilemma that the character in the book had to face. It made you think about what you would have done, if you were in their place. I know what it is like to worry about if your parents have enough money to pay the house payment. I went through the same situation in high school. This book creates great self-to-texts connections. It is also enjoyable for anyone who is a baseball fan, since this is all about a rare baseball card of the great BAMBINO!! The audience range for this book is also huge from second grade all the way to sixth maybe seventh for a fun entertaining read for all reading levels. This is just a great and fascinating book with lots of twist and turns that keep you thinking of what you would do in Griffins situation.