Swindle by Gordon Korman

(lexile: 710; AR book level: 4.9; 252 pp)

Meet Gordon Korman, author of Swindle.

Swindle offers a wide variety of exploration activities: It's a story of haunted houses, baseball cards, money troubles, friends, and big plans.

First of all, is there a haunted house near you?  What is its history?  How could you go about sorting out what was fact and what was fiction about the house?  Would you spend a night in the house if you were given the chance?

Suppose you found something valuable inside- what would it be?

What do you think of Griffin's decision to try and steal the card back for the dishonest dealer?  Do his reasons justify the act?  What would you do in his situation?

Let's do a little math. 

The baseball card in Swindle was estimated to be worth a million dollars.  If you were to design the ultimate heist, who would be on your team to retrieve this baseball card? What would their specialty be? How many ways would the money be divided and how would each team member envision spending their portion?

Now let's get ready for the big heist.  Hone your observation skills by playing this game.  

And, learn to play backgammon- you never know when you might need to distract a nosy neighbor.

But, alas, even the best laid plans can go wrong.  You've gotten yourself caught and grounded.

Never fear.  Use your time wisely, by inventing a new gadget that will make you millions of dollars instead of a life of thievery.

Plot a way to convince your parent to let you have a doberman to train as a guard dog.

Or, design your dream skate park.

Even better news?  You will have plenty to read while incarcerated in your room.

Swindle, Zoobreak, and Framed, the first three books in this series are all on sale for the kindle during the month of November.  Score!

Need more to read?

The Homework Machine by Dan Gutman

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Scat by Carl Hiaasen

A Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements

Holes by Louis Sachar

Then, when you finally earn time off for good behavior, there's even a movie adaption of Swindle.