High Score (High Score #1)

by Destiny Howell (Author)

Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade
Series: High Score

Oceans 11 goes to the arcade in this wildly entertainng heist adventure that is perfect for fans of Gordon Korman, Varian Johnson, and Celia P rez.

We do this my way.

No one gets hurt.

And if I call it off, it's off.

Got it?

My name's Darius James--but everyone calls me DJ. At my old school, I was the go-to guy for all kinds of tricky problems that needed creative solutions. But at my new school, Ella Fitzgerald Middle, I'm just trying to blend in.

Well, I was, anyway, until my best friend, Conor, got himself transferred to the Fitz too. Now Conor owes 100,000 arcade tickets to the biggest bully around--and he only has two weeks to make it happen. Impossible? Not with my head in the game.

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Kirkus

An exciting and entertaining heist story.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

Months after his last "job" sparked unintended consequences, mastermind DJ, this book's seventh grader narrator, is lying low at his new school, retired from a life of cons, heists, and schemes. That is, until his best friend and former partner-in-crime Conor transfers to be with him, and promptly runs afoul of the lottery kingpin who controls the school's underground economy of Starcade-brand arcade tickets. Now, DJ has two weeks to acquire 100,000 tickets, or both he and Conor will be "rocket boosted"--socially disappeared. To achieve the impossible, DJ goes straight to the source, planning to lift the tickets from the Starcade itself by any means necessary. But even after he recruits actor Audrey Valentine and intimidating but soft-spoken Monty LaCroix to round out his new crew, it'll take every trick in the book to pull off a caper of this caliber. Expertly filtering a bevy of familiar heist elements through a middle school lens while maintaining the genre's spirit and lingo, debut author Howell writes a fast-paced adventure packed with cunning twists. DJ is Black; other protagonists read as white. Ages 8-12. Agent: Emily Mitchell, Wernick & Pratt Agency. (June)

Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Destiny Howell
Destiny Howell was born in Florida and decided to become a lawyer to learn all the rules before she quit to write novels about clever kids who break them. She currently lives in Tampa, Florida where she is pursuing an MFA in creative writing and trying to get together a weekly Dungeons & Dragons group (which is proving much trickier). Visit her at destinyhowell.com.
Classification
-
ISBN-13
9781338746716
Lexile Measure
640
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Scholastic Press
Publication date
June 28, 2022
Series
High Score
BISAC categories
JUV039060 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Friendship
JUV019000 - Juvenile Fiction | Humorous Stories
JUV001000 - Juvenile Fiction | Action & Adventure
Library of Congress categories
-

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