Don't Get Caught
Don't Get Caught
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Annotation: To his great surprise, uncool eleventh-grader Max Cobb is invited to join the Chaos Club, an exclusive group of students responsible for some of the biggest pranks at his high school.
 
Reviews: 4
Catalog Number: #5797747
Format: Paperback
Special Formats: High Low High Low
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc
Copyright Date: 2016
Edition Date: 2016 Release Date: 04/01/16
Pages: 331 pages
ISBN: 1-492-63014-4
ISBN 13: 978-1-492-63014-2
Dewey: Fic
LCCN: 2015032236
Dimensions: 21 cm.
Language: English
Reviews:
ALA Booklist (Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)

Max is boring t that smart, not that funny, not that noticeable. So when he gets a letter from his school's notorious pranksters, the Chaos Club, he has a choice to make: does he stay plain, boring Max, or does he seize the chance to make life a little more like his favorite heist movies? Of course, the letter turns out to be a setup, and Max finds himself caught up in the middle of an antiestablishment, revenge-driven prank war. Sure, he may land himself on the wrong side of the law, but he also finally has friends. Nothing, however, is what it seems, and as in every good heist movie, someone is a double-crosser. Funny, clever, and playful, this debut is an enjoyable romp that pairs high-stakes cons with a ragtag gang of high-school misfits. Savvy readers may see some of the plot twists coming, but that won't detract from their enjoyment of the prank war, and an open-ended finale suggests that this is only the beginning.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

For decades, the Chaos Club has pulled pranks at Max Cobb's high school, but when they frame Max and four other students for one of their escapades, he and the rest of the so-called Water Tower Five vow revenge. With heist-movie-obsessed Max as mastermind, the group embarks on a no-holds-barred game against an invisible enemy as they attempt to take down the Chaos Club and pull some epic pranks of their own. No pep rally or homecoming event is safe, no mascot or trophy off limits. Genre-savvy, clever, and full of "Heist Rules" like "If questioned, be evasive" and "Play to your crew's strengths," this twisty tale is funny, fast-paced, and full of surprises. Newcomer Dinan brings in numerous classic heist elements, including sleight-of-hand, code names, flashback sequences (to show what really happened along the way), and elaborate schemes, leading to one revelation after another. Fans of Ocean's 11 or Leverage-properties Max himself holds dear in his personal playbook-will find a great deal to enjoy in Dinan's debut. Ages 14-up. Agent: Kerry Sparks, Levine Greenberg Literary Agency. (Apr.)

School Library Journal (Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)

Gr 8 Up-Max Cobb flies under the radaruntil a prank sets him and several classmates up to take the fall for the high school's legendary Chaos Club. In a quest to prove he's more than ordinary, Max, with his motley crew, decides to take down the club and the school's disliked disciplinarian. But when their slippery slope of vengeance and insensitive pranking enters illegal territory with little to no thought of the consequences, Max is forced to consider that his crew might be worse than their perceived rivals. Crude humor, insecurities, and family expectations ring true in this realistic tale. Actions by the school's administration and teachers strain credulity for the sake of plot. The obvious but not incorrect message that people are more than what they're pigeonholed as is ironically promoted among a cast of archetypesthe exception being fallible yet empathetic and likable Max, whom readers will root for. A baddie's vaguely cartoonish reveal in the final twist may not surprise readers. VERDICT Pop culture references, short chapters, and laugh-out-loud narrative moments make this an additional purchase for reluctant readers or fans of films like The Perfect Score . Danielle Serra, Cliffside Park Public Library, NJ

Voice of Youth Advocates

Adolescent prank wars summon up all the ingenuity, madness, and vengefulness with which adolescents wrestle. Sixteen-year-old narrator Max Cobb and four of his classmates fall for a prank that leaves them looking guilty on top of a just-vandalized school water tower when the security guard turns on the spotlight. Ridiculed as the "Water Tower 5," they blame the anonymous Chaos Club, a decades-old school institution with a reputation for legendary pranks. Max sees himself as gullible, boring, ordinary"Just Max"but with considerable knowledge of heist movies. Heist rule #7 is "Always get payback." The Water Tower 5 use a series of outrageous pranks, hoping to draw out and expose the Chaos Club members. As the pranks escalate beyond clever raunchiness into meanness, Max has serious reservations. By the time he renounces the prank war, he has survived suspension, arrest, and a major double-cross, but he is sure about his own values.The other members of the Water Tower 5two girls and two boysare well drawn. Each contributes a realistic backstory and personal flavor to the plot. Teen readers will delight in the way such totally different individuals begin to cooperate to triumph over their wrongs. Several of the adult characters, especially the vice principal, are exaggerated fascist stereotypes, so it is easy to root against them. Although the pranks never quite lose their clever charm, they do cost two adults their jobs. In the end, readers will have to detach themselves from the Water Tower 5, and they may also feel double-crossed by a late plot surprise.Katherine Noone.

Reviewing Agencies: - Find Other Reviewed Titles
ALA Booklist (Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)
School Library Journal (Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)
Voice of Youth Advocates
Word Count: 70,459
Reading Level: 5.1
Interest Level: 7-12
Accelerated Reader: reading level: 5.1 / points: 11.0 / quiz: 182871 / grade: Upper Grades
Lexile: HL770L
<p><b>Chapter 1</b></p><p>Rule #1 in any quality heist film is Don't get caught.</p><p>So I'm quiet as I slip out my bedroom window, cross the roof in the cool darkness, and drop from the garage onto the wet grass. Overhead, my parents' lights may be off for the night, but this is a terrible idea any way you look at it. It's stupid, irresponsible, and borderline suicidal. But I'm going anyway.</p><p>Blame every movie hero I idolize, blame Tami Cantor, blame Mr. Watson's stupid classroom banner. Blame whomever and whatever you want. This is poor decision making at its finest. But I'm still going.</p><p>I stay to the sidewalks because lurking in shadows would only make me look suspicious. In the shadows, I'm a potential burglar, but on the sidewalk, I'm just another sixteen-year-old kid out for a walk-"on my way to a friend's house, Officer" if I get stopped by the cops.</p><p>It's Heist Rule #2: Be cool.</p><p>Like, bank vault combination changed at the last minute? Be cool.</p><p>Someone on your crew double-crosses you? Be cool.</p><p>Security guards show up unexpectedly? Be cool.</p><p>It works for Vin Diesel stealing cars in The Fast and the Furious. It works for George Clooney robbing casinos in Ocean's Eleven. It works for Timothy Hutton on Leverage. Even John Travolta, back before he got all bloated, played it cool when the Russian mob wanted him dead in a movie called-wait for it-Be Cool.</p><p>So if it works for them, it has to work for me, right? You might as well just go ahead and add me to the list-Vin Diesel, George Clooney, Timothy Hutton, prebloat John Travolta, and Max Cobb: cool personified.</p><p>The only problem is "cool" and "Max Cobb" go together about as well as sharp knives and dull minds.</p><p>It's more like, three-day weekend coming up? Sit at home watching movies with my parents.</p><p>Score in the forty-ninth percentile on the ACT three times running? Scream into my pillow until I'm hoarse.</p><p>Be best known for passing out in front of the class in ninth grade? Contemplate fashioning the bedsheet into a Snoopy-themed noose.</p><p>Screw those people who say, "Be yourself." Being myself has only gotten me a stupid, boring life. So for once, I'm doing the opposite. Tonight, there's no Max Cobb or, as Tami Cantor called me, Just Max. As in "Oh, don't worry about him, that's just Max."</p><p>No, tonight I'm Not Max, which means keeping cool. I refuse to play it safe and turn back like Just Max begs me to. Instead, Not Max keeps a steady pace, forcing himself not to flinch at every passing car, his heart quickening when the lights of Asheville High School appear in the distance.</p><p>AHS is an ancient building that was constructed about the time Pangaea split to form the continents. If it weren't for the soccer, baseball, and football fields nearby, you'd think you were looking at a decaying mental institution, which I suppose all schools are in a way. My destination's the water tower sitting on the edge of school property. With its massive rusting legs stretching into the night sky, the tower's Asheville High-Home of the Golden Eagles can be seen by the entire town. I'm halfway across the soccer field, walking in the weird gray light of the full moon, when I catch movement out of the corner of my eye.</p><p>"Max?"</p><p>My heart almost explodes through my chest. It's a girl's voice, but I can't see whose.</p><p>"Max? Is that you?"</p><p>She's coming toward me now.</p><p>Screw Be cool.</p><p>I sprint away, running with no clear destination. I need gone, away from this stupid decision before something bad happens.</p><p>Not Max...what the hell was I thinking?</p><p>After only twenty feet, I'm panting like a two-pack-a-day smoker. I might as well be running in thick mud. So of course, slow ass that I am, whoever she is catches me. And not just catches me, but tackles me from behind, driving me to the soccer turf. Then I'm flipped over, flat on my back, and looking up into the face of Ellie Wick from my Introduction to Philosophy class. She's straddling my chest with her black spandex yoga pants and grinning as big as the moon.</p><p>"Hey, Max! You got an invitation too?" she says. "Isn't this awesome?"</p><p>Heist Rule #3: If questioned, be evasive.</p><p>"Invitation?"</p><p>Ellie's face pinches. "Maxwell Cobb, you know darn well why you're out here. It's the same reason I am."</p><p>"I don't know what you're talking about. I was just out for a walk."</p><p>Ellie pins my arms to the ground. She's freakishly strong for someone so small. "Here, I'll help you," she says. "Repeat after me. Say, ‘I'm here because of the Chaos Club, Ellie.' I'm not letting you up until you admit it."</p><p>You have to love a girl who considers chest-straddling a punishment.</p><p>You have to love it even more if that girl is Ellie Wick and you've liked her since seventh grade. But even if I'm all for Ellie staying on top of me all night, we have a ten o'clock date to keep, so I enjoy the contact for a few more seconds before saying, "Okay, I'm here because of the Chaos Club."</p><p>Inside, my hormones give me the finger.</p><p>"See how easy that was?" she says, standing up. "Come on, we don't want to be late. We're about to become a part of history."</p><p>As we start across the soccer field for the gate, I look at Ellie from the corner of my eye. With her blond hair and big green eyes, Ellie's as wholesome looking now in eleventh grade as she was back in middle school. Well, by now I don't mean now-now because Ellie certainly doesn't look wholesome at the moment. In fact, she looks lava hot. Black spandex tends to have that effect on me.</p><p>"So where was your invitation?" she says. "Mine was under my windshield wiper after school."</p><p>"Taped inside my locker," I say. I don't tell her that even with my name on the envelope, I double-checked the locker number to make sure it was actually mine.</p><p>"They really can get anywhere," Ellie says. "It's like they're ghosts. It's so awesome."</p><p>Awesome is the right word for the Chaos Club.</p><p>In just the last two years, the four-decade-old organization has:</p><p>1. Stacked tires all the way up the flagpole.</p><p>2. Filled a guidance counselor's entire office, floor to ceiling, with water balloons.</p><p>3. Hacked the district's website so anyone visiting was redirected to BarnYardLove.com.</p><p>4. Punished the school board for banning Slaughterhouse-Five by projecting pictures of them with Hitler moustaches on the scoreboard during the homecoming game.</p><p>There's even a website dedicated to documenting their pranks.</p><p>But making the Chaos Club even more awesome?</p><p>Its membership is anonymous.</p><p>Its movements are untraceable.</p><p>And no one's ever been caught.</p><p>So the big question is, why in the world was I, Max Cobb-Mr. 2.5 GPA, Mr. No Social Life, Mr. I'm So Lame the Career Interest Survey Recommended "Worker" As My Future Profession-chosen to receive an envelope with this message inside:</p><p>10:00 tonight at the water tower.</p><p>Tell no one.</p><p>CHAOS CLUB</p><p>I sure as hell don't know.</p><p>But I do know that as we cross the dark parking lot, Not Max is fifty yards from finding out.</p>

Excerpted from Don't Get Caught by Kurt Dinan
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Oceans 11 meets The Breakfast Club in this funny book for teens about a boy pulled into an epic prank war who is determined to get revenge. 10:00 tonight at the water tower. Tell no one. --Chaos Club When Max receives a mysterious invite from the untraceable, epic prank-pulling Chaos Club, he has to ask: why him? After all, he's Mr. 2.5 GPA, Mr. No Social Life. He's Just Max. And his favorite heist movies have taught him this situation calls for Rule #4: Be suspicious. But it's also his one shot to leave Just Max in the dust... Yeah, not so much. Max and four fellow students--who also received invites--are standing on the newly defaced water tower when campus security "catches" them. Definitely a setup. And this time, Max has had enough. It's time for Rule #7: Always get payback. Let the prank war begin. Perfect for readers who want: books for teen boys funny stories heist stories and caper comedies Praise for Don't Get Caught: "This caper comedy about an Ocean's 11-style group of high school masterminds will keep readers guessing."--Kirkus Reviews "Genre-savvy, clever, and full of "Heist Rules"...this twisty tale is funny, fast-paced, and full of surprises. Fans of Ocean's 11 or Leverage...will find a great deal to enjoy in Dinan's debut."--Publishers Weekly "Not only is Don't Get Caught the best kind of underdog story--heartfelt and hilarious--but it's filled with genuine surprises up until the very last page, which features one of my favorite endings in recent memory. I'm highly inspired to prank someone right now." -Lance Rubin, author of Denton Little's Deathdate "Witty, charming and always surprising...Call it Ocean's 11th Grade or whatever you like, Don't Get Caught snatched my attention and got away clean." -Joe Schreiber, author of Con Academy and Au Revoir Crazy European Chick


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