[CALIBK12] Richie's Picks: PROJECT SWEET LIFE

[BudNotBuddy at aol.com]

Richie's Picks: PROJECT SWEET LIFE by Brent  Hartinger, Harper Teen, February 
2009, 282p., ISBN:  978-0-06-082411-2
 
"Somedays won't end ever, and somedays pass on by, 
I'll be  working here forever, at least until I die. 
Dammed if you do, dammed if you  don't 
I'm supposed to get a raise next week, you know damn well I won't." --  Huey 
Lewis, "Working for a Living"
 
"I certainly understand that some people, even some  fifteen-year-olds, need 
to work.  They're saving for college, or  they have to help pay bills around 
the house.  For them, a summer job at  fifteen isn't optional.  But my dad 
makes a good living as a land  surveyor.  He wears silk ties!  And my mom is 
stay-at-home.  We  aren't poor.
"The adults won't tell you this, but I absolutely knew it in  my bones to be 
true: Once you take that first summer job, once you start  working, you're 
then expected to keep working.  For the rest of your  life!  Once you start, you 
can't stop, ever -- not until you retire or you  die.
"Sure, I knew I'd have to take a job next summer.  But  now, I had two 
uninterrupted months of absolute freedom ahead of me -- two  summer months of living 
life completely on my own terms.  I knew they were  probably my last two 
months of freedom for the next fifty years.
"The point is, dad or no dad, I was going to be taking a job  the summer of 
my fifteenth year over my dead body."
 
Dave and his two buddies -- Curtis and Victor -- are  sunk.  Their fathers -- 
who all work and play together -- have  been conversing about their sons and 
their sons' need to build  character through summer jobs.  But the three 
fifteen-year-old friends  figure that there has got to be a way that they can use 
their heads and  avoid spending the next ten weeks slaving away at minimum wage 
gigs.  All  they need to do, they reckon, is brainstorm a quick and  
effective way of accumulating roughly seven grand, split it three  ways, pretend that 
they are heading off to work each day, and enjoy their  summer in the manner 
in which it is supposed to be enjoyed.  They  dub their efforts "Project Sweet 
Life."
 
"One of the best things about a fictional job is that you can  completely set 
your own hours.  The hours I set for my 'lifeguarding job'  were afternoons 
and evenings.  That meant that I could sleep in every day  of the week, and 
there was nothing my parents could do about it (except grumble  continuously and 
bang pots and pans in the kitchen during breakfast, proving  once and for all 
that adults are not necessarily any more mature than the  teenagers they 
criticize).
 
Following the trio through their attempts to effect their  monetary stimulus 
plan, we encounter a series of over-the-top money making  schemes, some very 
evil bad guys, a double-crossing grandmother type, grand  escapes, a paternal 
uncle who is the antithesis of Dave's dad, and some  significant historical 
information about the underside of Tacoma Washington  -- where the story is set 
and where author Brent Hartinger was raised.  It  all comes together 
exquisitely in a fast-paced, fun, and occasionally  freaky tale on (and sometimes under) 
the streets and shores of  Tacoma.  In addition to all of the action, I 
especially love how  Hartinger has thoroughly woven an important and unrecognized 
historical  event into the heart of the story.  
 
But the question remains: What WILL happen when the dads  come looking for 
bank statements or insist on stopping by at work  to see how it's going?
 
Richie  Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
Moderator,  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/
BudNotBuddy at aol.com
http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks


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