Swindle (Childrens' book)

Summary

The book, Swindle, by Gordon Korman, is a fun and exciting adventure story of a boy named Griffin Bing, or as his friend, Ben Slovak calls him “The Man with the Plan.” Griffin and Ben has a sleepover at a doomed house that is scheduled to be demolished next morning. Griffin invited others; however, they chickened out and did not come. Ben, a short and small boy, falls a sleep fast, seeing that he has narcolepsy. A narcolepsy is when your body cannot control your amount of sleep. Griffin can’t seem to sleep, and goes and explore the old and condemned house. In a drawer in the Rockford house, Griffin finds an old Babe Ruth baseball card. Griffin gets high hopes, because the Bing family expenses are very low. The next morning, the two boys barely escape out of the house unharmed, and visit Palomino’s Emporium, where S. Wendell Palomino sells and buys collectible items. There, the boys get and offer for $120, and they just sell it and share the profits. However, when Griffin gets home and turns on the television, he finds out that he has been cheated out $1,000,000. Griffin and Ben make a plan to break into the store of S. Wendell, or Swindle, as the boys call him. Swindle has a guard dog, a very high fence, and good alarm systems. Griffin and Ben finds out ways to get through them: The dog calmed down by Savannah Drysdale, an animal whisperer; climbing the fence; and breaking the alarm code by video recording Swindle’s assistant, Tom Dufferin, as he punches the code in after he closes the shop. They break into the shop by putting Ben in a big box and putting on a sticker on it that says, “Attn” S. Wendell Palomino – Personal and Confidential. To Be Opened by Addressee Only.” Mr. Dufferin carries the box inside, and Ben falls asleep for a couple of minutes. When the boys are securely inside the shop, they discover that the safe has disappeared! After the failure of the heist of the shop, they discover that Swindle might have removed the safe and left it at his house! The two boys produce an ultimate plan that needs seven 6th graders in his homeroom. The team agrees to do it, and the ultimate plan begins. Logan Kellerman, an actor-to-be, takes care of a very nosy neighbor of Swindle’s, Mr. Eli Mulroney. Antonia “Pitch” Benson is a climber, and they need her to climb up a bathroom skylight to break in. They need Savannah Drysdale to calm the dog down, and Melissa Dukakis takes care of the tech stuff. Darren Vader, a burly boy who annoys Ben and Griffin, eavesdrops and blackmails them to let him join. On the heist night, many things occur. Pitch sprains her ankle, Ben falls asleep in a flower bed, and Darren tries to take the card for himself. There is not only one guard dog, but two. They found the safe, but the card wasn’t in there, so they had to search for it until the team found it in the breast of a Thanksgiving Day turkey. Despite all the good plans and stuff, they still get caught, since they left some evidence, such as the rope. Pitch’s family is the only ones who climb in Cedarville, so it was obvious. Later, Griffin gets the card by mail, and he is immediately arrested by Detective Sergeant Vizzini. However, everything turns right because Swindle doesn’t want to press charges, and the woman who is distantly related to the Rockfords, gave the Babe Ruth baseball card to her youngest relative, Darren Vader. But, Griffin’s dad, an engineer, gets a lot of money for his invention, the SmartPick. So, the story ends with the Bings rich and everything right.