Eleven-year-old Gina Tumolo loves money and wants nothing more than to make a million dollars this summer. To that end she, her best friend Rob, Australian transplant Quincy, and the eight-year-old Bogle twins form their own company. Their plan: fake a UFO photo and sell it to the tabloids. When
The National Truth won’t bite, they sell it for $15 to the
Farmington Journal. TV reporters follow. Gina is tongue-tied in front of the camera, but the Bogle twins’ facility for outlandish fibbing sparks a national phenomenon. Just when it seems $10 million might be the result, someone has an attack of conscience. The characters are regular kids and the story is believable, silly fun to a point. Quincy’s constant Australian slang, translated in footnotes, might annoy some while teaching useful, new epithets to others. Fans of Gregory Maguire’s Hamlet Chronicles will enjoy this fluffy, summer read with a fun twist ending.
