Swindle by Gordon Korman

Review by Erin

Were you ever put in the situation of fighting against a 40 year old man for a one million dollar baseball trading card? Well, Griffin Bing was. This would of never happened if Griffin hadn’t slept over in the Rockford’s house! Griffin Bing is a young boy fighting to regain his million- dollar Babe Ruth trading card. He is also called “The Man with the Plan”. Griffin is a daring kid who doesn’t let anything or anyone hold him back from getting what he wants.

It all started when Griffin planned a sleepover at an old vacated house. AKA the Rockford house. Griffin planned the sleepover with his entire grade. Griffin and his best friend were the only ones who showed up. Ben had fallen fast asleep like a light that night. So, that left Griffin awake and all alone. That’s when Griffin decided to go and explore. Most of the house was empty except for a desk that appeared to be empty. Griffin looked in the drawer and there was only a Babe Ruth baseball trading card. He knew it would be worth big money. With this, Griffin decided to go to an antic store and sell his card for 120 dollars. Later, while watching the news on television he heard the antic dealer (guy he sold the card to named Swindle) saying he was selling it for one million dollars. Griffin is on his way back to getting his card.

I loved the book Swindle and would rate it 3 out of 4 stars for the following reasons. I gave this book such a high rating because the author used such great descriptions. I really liked how he described the guard dog as a menacing, sharp toothed, guard dog! The only reason I didn’t give Swindle 4 stars was there was lots of history and unnecessary background knowledge that did not grab my attention. I suppose these details are appealing to other readers. Especially, when I heard awesome reviews from my classmates who really enjoyed really enjoyed the book Swindle as much as I did.