Guy Friday- Faker

Korman, Gordon. Faker

July 2, 2024 by Scholastic Press

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Trey and his sister Arianna have had a nomadic life, changing schools and moving to new places frequently, with "vacations" in exotic locales in between, because their father, Junior, is a con artist. They change names frequently, but always included the generational markers so they can be called the same thing. Arianna's name gets different spellings. Their mother left long ago, unable to deal with this lifestyle. The father settles in to a place with wealthy marks, like the Spealman School where Trey has befriended Rudy. He comes up with a scheme, like selling shares in a purebred show dog, gathers the money, and absconds. There's even a family safe word, "Houdini", for when the extractions have to take place. The latest one involved pulling Trey out in the middle of a lacrosse game after the parents at the school all started to realize they had bought shares in the same dog. The next stop is Boxelder, Tennessee, where the father has found a furnished house in a wealthy area called "The Point". Trey and Arianna's contribution to the con is to befriend wealthy children and introduce Junior to their parents. Arianna, who is younger, wants to play a larger role, and is proud to bring home Micah, whose parents are art dealers. Junior takes a while to figure out a scheme, and Trey settles in to the school, making friends with Logan and well as Kaylee Novak, whose father is also one of his teachers. Mr. Novak is starting a unit on ethics, which is uncomfortable for Trey, and Kaylee is determined to save the local Albion Pond, which has become derelict and filled with mosquitos, while the area around The Point is much nicer. Junior allows Trey to do this as long as he doesn't get him picture in the paper. Junior's plan turns out to be a new, flashy Electic Vehicle called "El Capitan". He has a guy put a new body on a Tesla, and drives the car around town. The parents are enthralled. Junior claims to be a lower echelon worker, but is able to take "investment money". This starts to add up to million of dollars, but Trey has his doubts. Not only does he want to stay with his new friends in Boxelder, but he starts to question his father's assertion that he only takes money from those who can afford it when Mr. Novak wants to invest Kaylee's college fund. When the news breaks that the new El Capitan factory will be built on the site of Albion Pond, things get even more complicated for Trey. How can he convince his father to give up his grifter lifestyle and embrace a more honest way of living?
Strengths: There was something weirdly enthralling about Trey's posh but corrupt lifestyle, but there was also the combined philosophic outlook of both the ethics of what the family was doing and the environmental and class division problems in Boxelder. This covers friendship, sibling rivalry, hype over new technology, and activism for children. It was funny, but also had a couple of fantastic plot twists that I do not want to spoil, since every fan of middle grade literature will want to go out and grab a copy of this right away. Personally, I was glad to see Korman return to the single perspective, first person voice; if I struggle with multiple narrators, I know many of my emerging readers will as well. The ending was a bit pat, but somehow the ending that I really wanted to have for both Trey and his community. Fantastic book.
Weaknesses: I'm taking a quarter of a star off for the deus ex machina ending, even though it does keep the book at a reasonable 224 pages.
What I really think: I'm a big Korman fan, but I have to say that this is one of my favorites, right up there with Born to Rock, Ungifted, and Slacker. The only question now is whether to buy two or three copies!