Swindle

"The youngster in this book is concerned about his family finances. His father is an inventor and an innovator who has left his regular job and they don’t have much of an income stream. Their house is going on the market; he is worried about having to move away, and he’s desperate to stay. Then he finds a rare baseball card and he realises that at auction it can go for close to $1m. He takes it to a dealer and the dealer convinces this boy and his friend that the card is not worth very much at all, and he gets just $120 for it. Later he finds out that the card was authentic and that he’s been swindled. That’s all economics in terms of the family finances and the value of the card. It’s a scarce card, so it’s worth quite a bit of money. The entertaining part and the reason I like it so much is that the boy and his friends put together a little SWAT team. It’s fabulous entertainment in terms of their antics, what they do to get the card back. It’s very, very exciting, a fun read, and a real page-turner. Gordon Korman is a well-known author and the story is very well done."