Hideout by Gordon Korman Review

Hideout by Gordon Korman is the 5th and latest adventure in the tremendously well-known Swindle Series. Gordon Korman is one of my favorite authors and a rather accomplished one, possessing over Seventy-five titles to his credit. In fact, the story Swindle was not too long ago turned into a film by Nickelodeon. In Hideout, Korman keeps the Swindle Series rolling with another remarkable adventure. In Swindle, Griffin Bing and his pals confronted a mean guy they nickname “Swindle” who took a baseball card worth $1.2 million from their hands. After unmasking Swindle and forcing him to close down his shop, they also come in possession of his guard dog, Luthor. Luthor is a vicious dog, but Griffin’s pal Savannah is virtually a dog whisperer and becomes close buddies with the pup. In this caper, Palomino is back again, and he wants to get Luthor back. Clearly, Savannah isn’t going to just let Swindle take her dog. At the time of this book Griffin and his friends are away for summer camp, and they have no choice but to organize a very complex series of plans to keep Swindle’s hired henchmen from stealing back Luthor. There is no person better to plan it than Griffin Bing, the “Man with the Plan.” Griffin and his friends are all stationed at three separate summer camps. Swindle sends his goons to go after all 3, and they have to conceal the dog from not only the goons but also the rest of the camp. This book is split up into 3 separate parts or hideouts, each one focused on during the time that the canine is living at their respective camp. It commences with the canine stowing away with Griffin and Savannah to their camp. As soon as their location is known to Swindle, they swap luthor over to Melissa and Logan. Melissa joined the group on account of her terrific computer knowledge, and Logan joined because on account of his good acting skills. Luthor eventually ends up in the hands of Pitch and Ben. Pitch is a fantastic climber, and Ben is the small spaces guy and Griffin’s best friend. Every person in the gang has their particular expertise which enables the six of them to work together as a team. This book is riddled with tons of humor. Although the gang are being pursued by a criminal and his hired henchmen, Hideout is constantly interspersed with the fun personalities of every one of the members of the gang and lots of comedy. The last part of the story, where Swindle and his henchmen go face to face with Griffin and his group, is one of the best parts of the book and is filled with tons of humor. This is quite a well written tale and yet another awesome addition for the Swindle Series. It's no doubt hard to keep coming up with exciting stand-alone novels when you reach the fifth addition in a series with the same characters. Korman is, amazingly, up to the challenge. To be honest, however, I’m not all that excited for the next tale in the series, Jackpot. If I was in Korman's shoes, I would conclude this series at this point, due to the fact that I feel that the series is getting to be kind of long in the tooth. How many times can you get stoked reading about the exact same group of kids having a variation of basically the same adventure? Nevertheless, that fact doesn't take away from the strength of this story. I would highly recommend for preteens (around the ages of 9 to 12) to read it. Take a look at the excellent reviews of this book on Amazon. There is literally not one individual who says they or their child did not like the book. Korman’s books are pretty much guaranteed to be kid pleasers, and Hideout is not an exception. Before you read Hideout, however, I’d suggest to read the original Swindle. Though it’s not needed to comprehend and appreciate the story, it does help a lot to have an understanding of the past adventures. Plus, Swindle is a great story. By and large, there is not really very much criticism I can give Hideout. For the majority of his career, Gordon Korman wrote comedy books. It wasn't until the late 90's that he began to write action/adventure. I feel as though now he’s mastered merging these two styles together to create a suspenseful but also hilarious book. This is classic Gordon Korman at his greatest. Thank you very much for checking out this review and if you'd like you can check out the book Animal Farm by George Orwell or my website featuring kids book reviews.