Thursday, 25 July 2024

Faker - Gordon Korman

Faker
Gordon Korman
ISBN 9781338826753
eISBN 9781338826760
ASIN B0CD3BRBKG

Faker - Gordon Korman

This is the latest release from the pen of Gordon Korman. It was published in June of 2025 and is the 104th book published by Korman. My introduction to Korman’s works was the 39 Clues back in 2009. Since then I have read 44 of his books. Hardly a drop in the buck, but with each one I read I am entertained and often challenged. My son often reads these books to me or with me. 

A description of this volume states:

“The story of a family of liars... and the son who wants to break the family tradition.

Trey knows the routine. His dad gets him into a school full of kids with rich parents. Trey makes friends, and his dad makes connections. Soon, there's the con, where Trey's dad suckers the other parents into investing in one of his schemes. Once the money's in the bank, Trey, his sister, and their dad are on the run... until they set up somewhere else and start again.

Trey believes his father when he says no one's getting hurt. After all, these parents have money to spare.

But Trey's starting to get tired of running ... and lying... and never having a friend for longer than a few months. But how do you get your family to stop lying when your lives depend on it?”

This story is as humorous as many of Korman’s other works, but it also has a very serious side. Trey wants to get out of the family business. He wants to live a normal life. He is tired of lying and cheating, and he has come to realize that they do not just always target people who can afford it. He wants real friends and most of all he wants stability. These wants and realizations appear to have been brewing for a while, but between an ethics module at school, a cute girl and a close friend the heat is turn up for him to do something about it. 

There is a lot of action in this story, from a scam about a show dog, to a new electric car that gets twice the mileage of a Tesla. But there is also a group of kids trying to reclaim a park and wild life area in town. And a younger sister that needs protecting and maybe most especially from herself.

This is another great School Story from one of the greatest masters in the genre. It is a story about family, friends, and finding your place in the world. And in this case it means Trey must learn to be true to himself even if it means standing up against family and how he has been raised his whole life! 

It is another excellent offering from Korman’s pen. I just wish Scholastic would release eBooks of these older titles by Korman. A great read I can easily recommend. 

Books by Gordon Korman:
MacDonald Hall Series:
         (formerly The War With Mr. Wizzle)
The Zucchini Warriors (1988)
Light’s Camera, Disaster (1991)
          (aka Macdonald Hall Goes Hollywood)
The Jokes on Us (1995)
          (formerly Something Fishy at Macdonald Hall)

Bugs Potter Series:

Jeremy Bloom Series:
The D−Poems of Jeremy Bloom (1992)
The Last-Place Sports Poems of Jeremy Bloom (1996)

Monday Night Football Series:
The Quarterback Exchange (1997)
Running Back Conversion (1997)
Super Bowl Switch (1997)
Heavy Artillery (1997)
Ultimate Scoring Machine (1998)
NFL Rules! Bloopers, Pranks, Upsets, and Touchdowns (1998)

Masterminds Series:
Masterminds (2015)

Slapshots Series:
The Stars From Mars (1999)
All-Mars All-Stars/The Dream Team (1999)
The Face-off Phony (2000)
Cup Crazy (2000)
Ouch I got slapped (2023)
4-in-1 Slapshots: The Complete Collection (2008)

Nose Pickers Series:
Nose Pickers from Outer Space! (1999)
Planet of the Nose Pickers (2000)
Your Mummy Is a Nose Picker (2000)
Invasion of the Nose Pickers (2001)
4-in-1 The Ultimate Nose-Picker Collection (2006)

Island Series:
Shipwreck (2001)
Survival (2001)
Escape (2001)
3-in-1 Island Trilogy Collection (2006)

Son of the Mob 2: Hollywood Hustle (2004)

Everest Series:
The Contest (2002)
The Climb (2002)
The Summit (2002)
Everest Trilogy Box Set (2002)

Dive Series:
The Discovery (2003)
The Deep (2003)
The Danger (2003)

On the Run Series:
The Stowaway Solution (2005)
Public Enemies (2005)
Hunting the Hunter (2006)

Kidnapped Series:
The Search (2006)
The Rescue (2006)

Swindle Series:
Swindle (2008)
Zoobreak (2009)
Framed (2010)
Showoff (2012)
Hideout (2013)
Jackpot (2014)
Unleashed (2015)
Jingle (2016)

Titanic Series:
Unsinkable (2011)
Collision Course (2011)
S.O.S (2011)

The 39 Clues Series:
Vespers Rising (2011)
The Medusa Plot (2011)
Flashpoint (2014)

Hypnotists Series:
The Hypnotists (2013)
Memory Maze (2014)
The Dragonfly Effect (2015)

Ungifted Series:
Ungifted (2012)
Supergifted (2018)

Slacker Series:
Slacker (2016)
Level 13 (2019)
...

Non Series Books:
Losing Joe's Place (1990)
The Twinkie Squad (1992)
The Toilet Paper Tigers (1993)
The Chicken Doesn't Skate (1996)
No More Dead Dogs (2000)
Maxx Comedy: The Funniest Kid in America (2003)
Jake, Reinvented (2003)
Born To Rock (2006)
Schooled (2007)
Pop (2009)
Restart (2017)
Notorious (2019)
War Stories (2020)
Game On (contains The Chicken Doesn’t Skate and The Toilet Paper Tigers (2021)
Unplugged (2021)
Linked (2021)
The Fort (2022)

Some Gordon Korman Books


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