Swindle (Childrens' book)
Encyclopedia
Swindle is a 2008 book by Gordon Korman
Gordon Korman
Gordon Korman is a Canadian author, primarily of novels for children and young adults. He lives in Long Island's Great Neck, New York, with his wife and three children....

.
The book is about a sixth grader named Griffin Bing who thinks he has found the answer to his family's financial problems when he discovers an extremely rare Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...

 baseball card in an abandoned house. 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
Replica
A replica is a copy closely resembling the original concerning its shape and appearance. An inverted replica complements the original by filling its gaps. It can be a copy used for historical purposes, such as being placed in a museum. Sometimes the original never existed. For example, Difference...

 and is tricked out of it. Now, in order to get the card back, Griffin must gather a group of local students with unique skills to break into Palomino's heavily guarded home to retrieve the card. The book has a 2 sequels titled Zoobreak
Zoobreak
Zoobreak is the sequel to the 2008 book Swindle by Gordon Korman. It was released in September, 2009.After the events in Swindle, the teams' animal expert and lover, Savannah loses her monkey after it is stolen by the corrupt zoo keeper of a zoo boat...

and Framed
Framed
As a proper noun, Framed can refer to:*Framed, 1930 film starring Regis Toomey*Framed, 1947 film noir starring Glenn Ford*Framed, 1975 film starring Joe Don Baker...

. It also has a fourth book coming called Showoff

Plot

A Cedarville sixth grader named Griffin Bing or, as his narcolepsic
Narcolepsy
Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder, or dyssomnia, characterized by excessive sleepiness and sleep attacks at inappropriate times, such as while at work. People with narcolepsy often experience disturbed nocturnal sleep and an abnormal daytime sleep pattern, which often is confused with insomnia...

 bestfriend Ben Slovak calls him, "The Man With The Plan", has parents who are struggling to patent his father's invention, an automatic fruit picker named the SmartPick. He thinks he has found the answer to all his financial problems after he finds an extremely rare Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...

 baseball card
Baseball card
A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on some type of paper stock or card stock. A card will usually feature one or more baseball players or other baseball-related sports figures...

 in the old Rockford house scheduled for demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....

. He sells the card to a local dealer named S. Wendell Palomino who tells him the card is a replica and tricks him out of the card for a mere $120. Griffin's problems are even worse when he finds out his family is selling their house to move to a more reasonable priced neighborhood. If they moved, Griffin would be forced to leave Ben behind. Angry when he finds out the card is real, and that Palomino is planning to sell it for millions, Griffin, with Ben's help, make a plan to break into Palomino's heavily guarded store to retrieve the card from a safe. They break into the shop by using the Trojan horse
Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War about the stratagem that allowed the Greeks finally to enter the city of Troy and end the conflict. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside...

 method, getting in a big crate. Swindle's assistant, Tom Dufferin carries the box inside. When the boys are securely inside the shop, they discover that the safe has disappeared. To break out of the store, Griffin and Ben climb the fence, and break the alarm code using a video recording of Dufferin, as he punches the code in after he closes the shop.
After the failure of the heist of the shop, they discover that Swindle might have removed the safe and moved the card to his house. The two boys produce an ultimate plan that needs six sixth graders in his homeroom. To get Swindle out of his house, Griffin and Ben buy him a ticket to a New York Rangers
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...

 hockey
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...

 game "accidentally" mail it to him contained in a child's birthday card. 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, Eli Mulroney. Antonia "Pitch" Benson is a climber, and they need her to climb up to a bathroom skylight to break in. They need Savannah Drysdale to calm the guard dog down, and Melissa Dukakis takes care of the security system and other technology. But Darren Vader, a burly boy who annoys Ben and Griffin, eavesdrops and blackmails them to let him join in on the plan for a cut of the profits.
On the heist night, Pitch sprains her ankle, Ben falls asleep in a bush, and Darren tries to take the card for himself. Griffin manages to use the smart pick to retrieve the card from a high branch of an oak tree. There is not only one guard dog, but two. They find the safe, but the card wasn't in there, so they had to search for it until Griffin remembered from an interview where the reporter asked why the card was so cold. Griffin then ran to the freezer and finds it in the breast of a Thanksgiving turkey. However, something sets the security system on and the team hears the police sirens in the distance. In the teams shock Darren takes the card and tries to run. While outside Darren loses grip and the card ends up high in a tree. Griffin goes home and gets the smartpick, his dads invention, and retrieves the card. Once the card is in his hands he and the team, except for Darren, make a run for it. Griffin has a Plan B. Griffin puts the card in an envelope and mails the card to the house he found it in. Unfortunately, the team is caught, since Pitch left the climbing harnesses. Later, Griffin goes to retrieve the card, but he is immediately arrested by Detective Sergeant Vizzini. Swindle doesn't want to press charges (in order to avoid an investigation so he wouldn't risk getting in trouble when he cheated Griffin), and Winifred Rockford Bates, the last surviving member of the original Rockford family, gave the Babe Ruth baseball card to her youngest relative, Darren Vader (Ben mentioned earlier that Darren claimed to be related to the Rockfords). Griffin and Ben could not believe it (particularly because Darren tried to take the card for himself and that he was Griffin and Ben's nemesis), but Darren's parents made him donate the money ($974,000) making it the second most expensive collectible ever that makes Griffin very upset. So now they have to give the card to the Cedarville Museum. The money brought in from the card allows the museum to be fixed up. Griffin, Ben and the rest of the team members (including Darren) didn't get one cent, but all the publicity brought in by the heist allows Griffin's dad to have the SmartPick to be patented, therefore ending the Bings' financial problems.
As of 2009, a movie deal on Swindle and Schooled
Schooled (book)
Schooled is a 2007 children's book written by Gordon Korman. It is about a hippie named Cap who comes to public school while his grandmother is in the hospital, and makes an impact on the school...

, (another Gordon Korman
Gordon Korman
Gordon Korman is a Canadian author, primarily of novels for children and young adults. He lives in Long Island's Great Neck, New York, with his wife and three children....

book) was made public, although not many details have gone out.
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