Books generally are better than their movies. Hearing that from my students never gets old and we have a good discussion analyzing plot and characters, dialogue and description.
I have quite a collection of Gordon Korman books in my classroom library. I haven't done an official author study, but I could easily pull it off with my fourth graders.
So, I was curious when I heard reports of a movie based on the book Swindle. It was released last month as a TV movie for Nickelodeon starring several of the teen actors in their TV shows. The plot is very loosely based on the book. Teens sell a baseball card to a collector named Swindle. Let's just say he lives up to his name.
I accidentally found it one evening and almost didn't recognize it. If you loved the books, I will save you time: don't watch the movie. If students happened to watch it, I would send them in the direction of the books. This may be its only redeeming quality.
For an explanation of my rating scale, click here.
