Gordon Korman’s Hideout Review
Gordon Korman’s Hideout is the fifth and final installment in the well-known Swindle Series. Gordon Korman is perhaps my favorite and quite accomplished author, with over 75 titles to his name. In fact, his book Swindle was recently made into a movie by Nickelodeon.
In Hideout, Korman keeps the Swindle series going with another hilarious adventure. In the first book, Griffin Bing and his friends are up against an unethical guy they call “Swindle” who stole a $1.2 million worth of baseball card from them.
After revealing Swindle and wrecking his store, they also seize his guard dog, Luthor. Luthor is a fierce dog, but Griffin’s good friend Savannah is basically a dog whisperer and becomes close friends with him.
At Hideout, Swindle is back and wants Luthor back. Needless to say, Savannah isn’t about to let that happen. At the time of this adventure, the gang is out camping and they have to coordinate a series of incredibly challenging plans to prevent Swindle’s hired goons from retrieving Luthor. There is no one better to organize it than Griffin Bing, the “Man of the Plan”.
Griffin and his friends are stationed at three different camps. Palomino sends his goons to the 3, and they have to hide the dog not only from the goons but also from the rest of the camp. The novel is divided into three separate sections or hideouts, each focusing on the period when Luthor is staying at his respective summer camp.
Hideout begins with the stray dog stowing away with Griffin and Savannah to their summer camp. Once Swindle knows his whereabouts, they have to switch Luthor with Melissa and Logan. Melissa became a member of Griffin’s gang due to her extremely impressive computer skills, and Logan due to his acting skills.
They eventually hand Luthor over to Pitch and Ben. Pitch is a fantastic climber, and Ben is the guy in the small spaces and Griffin’s best friend. Each member of the gang has their own unique specialty that allows them to succeed together as a team.
This book is full of humorous tones. Even though the group is being chased by a criminal and his thugs, this novel is constantly interspersed with the very funny personalities of each of the group members and tons of jokes. The ending, where Palomino and his hired goons come face-to-face with Griffin and his friends, is one of the best parts of the book and filled with a lot of humor.
This is an exceptionally well written story and another amazing addition to the Swindle series. It can’t be easy to keep creating successful stand-alone 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 that excited about the next book in this series, Jackpot. If I were in Korman’s position, I would stop this series at this point, due to the fact that I personally feel the series is getting a bit long. How many times can you get excited reading about the same kids having a variation of basically the same adventure?
However, that does not detract from the strength of this novel. I highly recommend that tweens (around 9-12 years old) read Hideout. Take a look at the notable reviews of this book on Amazon. There is literally not a single person who would say that he or his children did not like the hide and seek. Korman’s books are sure to please children, and this story is no exception.
However, before reading this book, I advise you to read the original Swindle. Although it is not necessary to understand and appreciate history, it helps a lot to understand it if you have an understanding of it.
history. Also, Swindle is an amazing story.
In general, there are not many criticisms that I can give Hideout. During most of his writing days, Korman wrote comedy books. It was only in the late 90’s that he started writing action/adventure. I feel like he has now managed to meld these two styles together to create a suspenseful but also fun book. Hideout is classic Korman at its finest.