Project Sweet Life - Hardcover

Hartinger, Brent

3.65

419 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060824115 ISBN 13: 9780060824112

Publisher: HarperTeen, 2009

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For most kids, fifteen is the year of the optional summer job: Sure, you can get a job if you really want one, but it isn't required or anything. Too bad Dave's dad doesn't agree! Instead of enjoying long days of biking, swimming, and sitting around, Dave and his two best friends are being forced by their fathers into a summer of hard labor.

The friends have something else in mind, though: Not only will they not work over the summer, but they're determined to trick everyone into believing they really do have jobs. So what if the lifeguard doesn't have a tan or the fast-food worker isn't bringing home buckets of free chicken? There's only one problem: Dave's dad wants evidence that his son is actually bringing in money. And that means Dave, Curtis, and Victor will have to get some . . . without breaking the law and without doing any work!

Project Sweet Life is designed for the funny and lazy bone in all of us—a true comedy of errors (without any effort!) from seasoned storyteller Brent Hartinger.

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About the Author:

Among Brent Hartinger's many books are Geography Club, which is now a feature film starring Scott Bakula, and Double Feature, winner of the Lambda Book Award. Like Dave and his friends, Brent grew up in Tacoma, Washington, and as a teenager he resisted getting a job for as long as possible, but was finally forced by his parents to go to work as a lifeguard at age sixteen. He still smells like coconut sunblock. Visit him online at brenthartinger.com

From Booklist:

Fifteen-year-old Dave and his buddies Victor and Curtis are shocked when their fathers demand they get summer jobs. As the boys glumly contemplate actual work, they decide to deceive their families, avoid employment, and live the sweet life for one last summer. Still, they need to figure out a way to make money, which they can pass off to their parents as hard-earned wages. In a series of ill-fated schemes that range from bank stakeouts to scuba diving, the boys weave a complicated and uncomfortable web of lies and rack up a large debt. At last, they try a desperate plan to locate stolen gold that plunges them into the China Tunnels, a remnant of a black time in the history of Tacoma, Washington. Hartinger’s comedy of errors is improbable but entertaining. The characters ring true, and teens will appreciate that the trio puts more effort into evading work than they would have expended at a real job. An amusing story with great teen appeal. Grades 6-9. --Lynn Rutan

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