Flat Broke: The Theory, Practice and Destructive Properties of Greed

by Gary Paulsen

Overview

Kevin struggled to overcome his knack for lying in Liar, Liar, and now he's back for another round of mayhem and misunderstandings in this financial comedy of errors. In Kevin, Gary Paulsen has created an appealing teen boy character who is just as human and fallible as his readers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780375898693
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	07/12/2011
Series:	Gary Paulsen's Liar Liar Series , #2
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
Lexile:	810L (what's this?)
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

GARY PAULSEN is the distinguished author of many critically acclaimed books for young people, His most recent books are Liar Liar, Masters of Disaster, Lawn Boy Returns, Woods Runner, Notes from the Dog, Mudshark, Lawn Boy, Molly McGinty Has a Really Good Day, The Time Hackers, and The Amazing Life of Birds (The Twenty Day Puberty Journal of Duane Homer Leech).

Editorial Reviews

Gr 5–9—In this follow-up to Liar, Liar (Random, 2011), 14-year-old Kevin has lost his allowance for a month thanks to his lying habit, so he has to find a way to make some cash. As quick as a wink, he puts his business savvy and his creativity to work and gets poker games going, delivers homemade cookies to a college campus, and starts a beauty service (with his big sister's help), among other initiatives. The money begins to flow in, but so does the trouble; not everyone is thrilled with Kevin's schemes, including the campus cops, his friends, and a local business owner. Throughout the book, business lessons are woven in by the clever narrator. Fans of the first book will enjoy this quick, fun lesson in cause and effect.—Amanda Moss Struckmeyer, Middleton Public Library, WI

School Library Journal

Booklist, June 1, 2011:
"If the unnamed narrator of Paulsen’s Lawn Boy (2007) is the plucky entrepreneur who skyrockets to riches, Kevin is the wannabe mogul who sees an angle a mile away but trips over his own sky’s-the-limit aspirations. A glib, quick read to launch a thousand MBAs."

From the Publisher

As a result of Kevin’s creative manipulation of the facts in LIAR, LIAR, his parents have suspended his allowance. Not one to be stopped by minor roadblocks, and in need of a way to improve his financial situation so he can impress the girl of his dreams, he checks some business books out of the library and sets out to become the world’s youngest millionaire. Joshua Swanson gives voice to Kevin, projecting all the swagger and bravado the 14-year-old can muster. Swanson’s portrayal of this likable, optimistic teen with a big talent for scheming and plotting will have listeners rooting for his success in spite of the hilarious complications he encounters. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2011 - AudioFile

A 14-year-old greedily launches himself headlong into the entrepreneurial world, with amusing consequences.

In the sequel to Liar, Liar (2011), Kevin's parents have taken away his allowance to punish him for his creative lying. Never impeded by misfortune (or a guilty conscience or the advice of everyone wiser than he), he decides it's a great time to make money. First he provides the perfect venue for poker games, even though some of his hapless player-victims begin to lose more money than they have. With the gambling business running admirably, he starts cleaning neighbors' garages, not worrying that depositing the trash in store Dumpsters is illegal. Then he begins "borrowing" a golf cart to sell cookies and coffee to college students. But he steps on too many people on the way up, inevitably leading to his downfall. Kevin's good-natured—if oversimplified—view of the world is pretty funny, and while readers will anticipate problems long before he does, it just adds to the fun. Chapter titles taken from a fictitious book on making money—"The Successful Person Has Vision That Others Lack," for example—contrast nicely with the disastrous outcome of Kevin's grandiose plans. That his droll first-person account only lightly sketches other characters hardly matters.

A jocular, fast-paced voyage into the sometimes simple but never quiet mind of an ambitious eighth grader. (Fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews