Hideout by Gordon Korman Review

Gordon Korman’s Hideout is the 5th and final release in the well-known Swindle Series. Gordon Korman is perhaps my favorite and rather accomplished author, with over 75 titles to his credit. In fact, his book Swindle was recently made into a movie by Nickelodeon.

In Hideout, Korman keeps the Swindle series going with another enjoyable adventure. In Book 1, Griffin Bing and his friends confronted an unethical guy they call “Swindle” who stole a baseball card from them worth $1.2 million.

After revealing Swindle and ruining his shop, they also come into possession of his watchdog, Luthor. Luthor is a vicious dog, but Griffin’s good friend Savannah is basically a dog whisperer and becomes close friends with him.

In Hideout, Swindle is back and he wants Luthor back. Needless to say, Savannah isn’t about to let that happen. At the time of this adventure, the gang has left for camp and they must coordinate a series of incredibly difficult plans in order to stop Swindle’s henchmen from recapturing Luthor. There’s no one better to organize it than Griffin Bing, “the man with the plan”.

Griffin and his buddies are all stationed at three different camps. Palomino sends his henchmen to all 3, and they have to hide the pooch not only from the henchmen but also from the rest of the camp. The novel is divided into three distinct sections or hideouts, each focusing on the time Luthor is housed at their respective summer camp.

Hideout begins with the pooch hiding out with Griffin and Savannah at their summer camp. Once Swindle knows where they are, they must turn off Luthor for Melissa and Logan. Melissa became a member of Griffin’s gang due to her extremely impressive computer knowledge, and Logan due to his acting skills.

They end up handing Luthor over to Pitch and Ben. Pitch is a fantastic climber, and Ben is the small space guy and Griffin’s best friend. Each gang member has their own unique specialty that allows them to do well as a team.

This book is full of humor. Despite the group being chased by a criminal and his henchmen, this novel is constantly intercut with the very funny personalities of each of the group members and tons of jokes. The ending, where Palomino and his henchmen come face to face with Griffin and his friends, is one of the best parts of the book and is full of humor.

It’s an exceptionally well-written story and yet another awesome addition for the Swindle series. It can’t be easy to keep coming up with best-selling standalone books when you get to the fifth book in a series with the same characters. Korman is, surprisingly, up to the challenge.

Honestly, though, I’m not at all excited for the next book in this series, Jackpot. If I were Korman, I would end this series at this point, because I personally think the series is getting a bit long between the teeth. How many times can you get excited when you read that the same children are having a variation of the same adventure?

However, this does not detract from the strength of this novel. I would highly recommend tweens (around 9-12) to read Hideout. Check out the stellar reviews of this book on Amazon. There’s literally not a single person who says they or their kids didn’t like the hideout. Korman’s books are sure to appeal to children, and this story is no exception.

Before reading this book, however, I advise you to read the original scam. Despite the fact that it is not necessary to understand and appreciate the story, it helps a lot to understand and understand
history. Plus, Swindle is an awesome story.

Overall, there aren’t really many criticisms I can make of Hideout. For the majority of his writing days, Korman wrote comedy books. It wasn’t until the late 90s that he started writing action/adventure. I feel like he’s now managed to merge these two styles to create a suspenseful yet hilarious book. Hideout is classic Korman at its best.