Schreiber,
Joe. Con
Academy. Houghton Mifflin 2015 236p. $17.99 ISBN 978-0-544-32020-8 hs Conflict
E-BN
When Shea, a con artist, enters a
private school, he quickly finds out that his back story may unravel when a
fellow con artist student threatens to out him. He strikes a deal with the other boy to bring down the most powerful, often hated boy on campus. The
agreement is that the winner will get to stay at the
prestigious Connaughton Academy,
and the loser will be outed and have to leave campus. Plenty of plot twists
and turns interspersed with humor make this a book to remember, as well as its sheer
number of cons within cons. Shea even
finds out that some people on campus are not the wealthy, do-gooders they seem to be, including the
headmaster. From the author of Au Revoir Crazy European Chick and
its sequel, this novel keeps the reader’s attention while making the teen characters believable in their
audacious behavior and their
intentions to take down the big man on campus. While this may seem like a beach read, it
will appeal to both male and female readers who like an action-packed adventure.
Serious questions are presented about the faces students put on while navigating
their teen years.
Summary: A con artist, Shea, cons his way into a private school. There he meets a fellow
con artist with whom he competes to see who will be
the first to con the most powerful student on campus. Lots of plot
surprises, with enough humor along the way to make this memorable. Grades 8+
School stories,
Humor-Fiction --Lois
McNicol
