58 pages • 1 hour read
Gordon KormanSwindle
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 16-20 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary
All the team members agree to the plan, even Savannah, who goes along with it for Luthor’s sake. Suddenly, something moves in the storage room, and the group realizes they are not alone; the bully Darren has heard everything. He blackmails Griffin into including him in the heist, saying that he will tell on Griffin if he does not. Griffin has misgivings but is forced to allow Darren to be part of the group. Griffin tells the team they have five days to prepare for the heist, which will take place on the eve of the auction.
Chapter 17 Summary
The next day the team begin preparations. Logan approaches Mulroney saying a package has been misdelivered to his house. It is a backgammon set, and Logan proposes to play Mulroney, saying he is new in town and has not made many friends. Logan reports back to the group that he can see the skylight from Mulroney’s porch, so they make a plan to turn off the streetlight. To get Swindle out of his house, Darren proposes they drop a New York Rangers ticket in Swindle’s mailbox addressed to someone else. Knowing Swindle, he will want to keep the ticket for himself, giving the team a three- or four-hour window to complete the heist.
Chapter 18 Summary
Griffin is confident in his plan but decides to take all of the blame if something goes wrong. He knows that his friends are helping his cause, and he does not want them to get in trouble for his sake. Midchapter, the narrative switches to Swindle’s point of view, as he returns home to find a Rangers ticket in his mailbox addressed to “Uncle Archie” (148). Swindle takes the ticket without a second thought, dreaming about the riches the baseball card will bring him.
Chapter 19 Summary
Melissa has been monitoring Swindle’s email and discovers a problem. Due to increased media attention about the baseball card, the auction house wants to pick up the card early, during the timeframe Griffin planned to carry out the heist. Griffin decides to reply that the pick-up address is in Cedar Springs, a town sixty miles away, to give them enough time to carry out the heist. The next day, they put the plan into action. Logan visits Mulroney for a backgammon rematch, Melissa disconnects the streetlight, and Griffin waits for Swindle to leave for the Rangers game.
Chapter 20 Summary
After dark, the team meets at the water tower and proceeds to Swindle’s house. On the way, Ben reveals to Griffin that he has narcolepsy and fears that he will fall asleep if he tries to climb the ladder. Ben switches to the lookout, while Melissa excitedly takes his place. The group, minus Ben, successfully climbs to the roof and opens the skylight.
Chapters 16-20 Analysis
Chapters 16-20 provide the rising action to the story’s climax. These chapters foreshadow the unexpected obstacles Griffin and his crew will encounter during their mission. The obstacles test Griffin’s planning abilities, even though he always expects that something will go wrong. For instance, when they learn that the auction house wants to pick up the card sooner than expected, Griffin is relieved because he can plan around the change. Griffin’s plans work as long as he has time to adjust them, and the subsequent chapters will test his ability to work through problems in real time, when there is no room for errors.
In these chapters, we see that Griffin’s increasing confidence reaches a point of arrogance. The transition occurs when he begins focusing on getting revenge against Swindle rather than saving his family. When anyone in the group expresses doubts, he reminds them that what they are doing is not wrong. He makes the analogy to a bank repossessing a car, which is technically stealing but legal because the bank is the car’s true owner.
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By Gordon Korman
