Book Descriptions
for To Catch a Cheat by Varian Johnson
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Jackson Greene has sworn off con games since successfully thwarting an attempt to rig the 8 th grade presidential election. Then he’s sent a video that implicates members of Gang Greene, the team he put together, in school vandalism. The anonymous sender gives him a choice: Steal the answers to an upcoming social studies test or the video will be sent to the principal. African American Jackson knows the video was doctored but it was a skillful job; proving it won’t be easy. Jackson, Charlie (struggling with jealousy over all the attention Jackson got for the election scam heist), Gaby, and the other members of Gang Greene agree to the job, but part of Jackson’s plan is a double-cross: He’s determined to catch the blackmailers, expose the real vandals, and foil the cheating attempt. In this welcome follow-up to The Great Greene Heist, the characters are still interesting, the diversity is still effortless, and the fun of a con job in a middle school setting, to serve the greater good, no less, still delights. (Ages 9–13)
CCBC Choices 2017. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2017. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
When a video frames Jackson Greene and his friends for a crime they didn't commit, Gang Greene battles the blackmailers in this sequel to the acclaimed The Great Greene Heist.Jackson Greene is riding high. He is officially retired from conning, so Principal Kelsey is (mostly) off his back. His friends have great new projects of their own. And he's been hanging out a lot with Gaby de la Cruz, so he thinks maybe, just maybe, they'll soon have their first kiss.Then Jackson receives a link to a faked security video that seems to show him and the rest of Gang Greene flooding the school gym. The jerks behind the video threaten to pass it to the principal -- unless Jackson steals an advance copy of the school's toughest exam. So Gang Greene reunites for their biggest job yet. To get the test adn clear their names, they'll have to outrun the school's security cameras, outwit a nosy member of the Honor Board, and outmaneuver the blackmailers while setting a trap for them in turn. And as they execute another exciting caper full of twists and turns, they'll prove that sometimes it takes a thief to catch a cheat.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.