  | High score Author: Howell, Destiny | |
| Price: $23.08 | ||
Summary:
Darius James--DJ to his friends--has a head for cons and a heart of gold. He pulled his last con months ago at his old school. Now safely enrolled in Ella Fitzgerald Middle School he's determined to keep his head down. But when Conor, his best friend from his old school, shows up, DJ knows his anonymous days are done. To save Conor from Lucky, the school bully, DJ is forced to rig a contest for Lucky by stealing 100,000 tickets for the contest. Will it work?
| Accelerated Reader Information: Interest Level: MG Reading Level: 4.30 Points: 7.0 Quiz: 518908 |
Reviews:
Booklist (+) (05/15/22)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 05/15/2022 *Starred Review* In a gleeful middle-school spin on Ocean’s Eleven, 12-year-old ex-wheeler-dealer Darius James reluctantly comes out of retirement to save former sidekick Conor from being declared totally radioactive by menacing school kingpin Lucas “Lucky” Ford. Given just two weeks to come up with an astronomical 100,000 prize tickets from the local video game franchise or see Conor brutally socially exiled, DJ not only has to concoct a scheme to extract the tickets (winning them the conventional way being impossible in the allotted time) without cheating anyone or breaking the law but also assemble a team of classmates with the right talents to pull off an elaborate con under the very nose of the arcade’s hostile, suspicious manager. Needless to say, things don’t go as planned. But here, Howell has concocted an elegant, suspenseful plot that is just credible enough to carry more than a few uproarious twists and turns. She trots in, too, a smart and vivid cast that will win readers over with its chemistry even as it leaves them, by turns, breathless and cheering as it snatches victory from the verge of humiliating disaster, thanks to quick thinking and coolness in the clutch. Light doses of criminal jargon (notably, references to “the Duck Lemonade,” “the Moonwalking Bear,” and other classic maneuvers) add flavor to this heady caper. - Copyright 2022 Booklist.
