Product Description

For most kids, fifteen is the year of the optional summer job: Sure, you can get a job if you really want one, but it isn't required or anything. Too bad Dave's dad doesn't agree! Instead of enjoying long days of biking, swimming, and sitting around, Dave and his two best friends are being forced by their fathers into a summer of hard labor.

The friends have something else in mind, though: Not only will they not work over the summer, but they're determined to trick everyone into believing they really do have jobs. So what if the lifeguard doesn't have a tan or the fast-food worker isn't bringing home buckets of free chicken? There's only one problem: Dave's dad wants evidence that his son is actually bringing in money. And that means Dave, Curtis, and Victor will have to get some . . . without breaking the law and without doing any work!

Project Sweet Life is designed for the funny and lazy bone in all of us—a true comedy of errors (without any effort!) from seasoned storyteller Brent Hartinger.

Product Details

• Published on: 2009-02
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Library Binding

From Booklist
Fifteen-year-old Dave and his buddies Victor and Curtis are shocked when their fathers demand they get summer jobs. As the boys glumly contemplate actual work, they decide to deceive their families, avoid employment, and live the sweet life for one last summer. Still, they need to figure out a way to make money, which they can pass off to their parents as hard-earned wages. In a series of ill-fated schemes that range from bank stakeouts to scuba diving, the boys weave a complicated and uncomfortable web of lies and rack up a large debt. At last, they try a desperate plan to locate stolen gold that plunges them into the China Tunnels, a remnant of a black time in the history of Tacoma, Washington. Hartinger’s comedy of errors is improbable but entertaining. The characters ring true, and teens will appreciate that the trio puts more effort into evading work than they would have expended at a real job. An amusing story with great teen appeal. Grades 6-9. --Lynn Rutan

Review
"A hilarious story filled with mishaps, close calls, and outrageous adventures. It will keep readers laughing and engaged." (School Library Journal )

"An amusing story with great teen appeal." (ALA Booklist )

"An irresistable setting with humorous episodes tinged with mild danger, and a light-hearted mystery." (Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books )

About the Author

Brent Hartinger has been a full-time author for many years, writing novels, plays, and screenplays. He lives in Washington State. Among his books are Geography Club and its sequel, The Order of the Poison Oak, as well as The Last Chance Texaco and Split Screen. Like Dave and his friends, as a teenager he resisted getting a job for as long as possible but finally was forced by his parents to go to work as a lifeguard at age sixteen. He still smells like coconut sunblock.

Customer Reviews

What a Summer!
Hartinger, Brent. "Project Sweet Life", HarperTeen, 2009.

What a Summer!

Amos Lassen

Dave is 15 years old and he and his friends Victor and Curtis cannot believe that their fathers want them to get summer jobs. They decide that they do not want to work but to enjoy summer but they have to find a way so that their parents will think they are earning money. They come up with some schemes that get them involved in a series of lies and deeply in debt. They finally come with the idea of locating stolen gold which takes them back to a period of history in Tacoma, Washington and into the China Tunnels. We get a comedy of errors that is not likely but is a lot of fun to read about. If these guys had used their time finding work instead of scheming, they would have been so much better off and we would be without a good book.
They had to come up with $7000 to prove they were working when in effect they were not. A few of the schemes seemed plausible but did not work. Instead they come up with Project Sweet Life which is to be their secret plan. The plans may not work but the boys mature and their friendship strengthens. Our boys are positive examples of teens--they are determined and they persevere. After an attempt fails they keep trying. They have a sense of integrity even though they are not about to go to work. We also get a look at the Chinese community and see how poorly they were once treated.
There is love in the novel and great characters. Hartinger has a great sense of humor and the book hilarious at times.

Sweet indeed!

Project Sweet life is the story about fifteen year old Dave and his two best friends, Curtis and Victor. The day right before their summer vacation begins, their dads spring this crazy order on them, they have to get a job. They absolutely cannot have this! I mean they're only fifteen! They shouldn't have to work, besides they had everything planned out for the summer. Since they don't want this job thing ruining their vacation they decide to come up with the cash they would have made working all summer ($7,000 bucks to be exact) in a quick way so that they have the rest of the summer to do what they had been planning. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned.

I really liked this book. The story was very ...sweet. hehe It's basically about these three good friends going through an adventure. I absolutely love those kinds of stories and thankfully this book was just as good. It made me laugh out loud at times, gosh the things these kids think up! Hilarious. The three fellas were unfortunate enough to end up having bad luck in a bunch of the schemes they tried to make themselves rich quick. It was pretty fun to read about. I could easily picture this becoming a movie and trust me, I'd be one of the first to see it. :)
I loved the whole friendship subject, absolutely loved it! It's really great how each of the boys had their own funky personality but they were good together anyway, it's really cute. :)

A bunch of the schemes really seems like they would work and I was seriously thinking, "Whoa they make those seven grand that fast?" It really surprises you which is nice. Did I mention it was very funny? Gosh I just cracked up so much with the old lady part, you have no idea how much I laughed. Too funny.
The reason I didn't give this book a higher rating was because I didn't like a few things about it. I didn't like that the mother was so..weak. The husband seemed to be the one to always call the shots while the mother just sat there quitely and did nothing. I hated that VERY much. tsk tsk Another thing I didn't like was that sometimes the story got slow. Thankfully it didn't so much that I didn't enjoy the book but it still happened. If anything I'm sure younger readers will love it more than its intended audience; young adults. I would have given this four stars if it weren't for that.


[...]

A new way to look at boring summers
Reviewed by Avni Gupta (age 15) for Reader Views (2/09)

Once I started reading "Project Sweet Life," I realized that this book was going to be unlike any other that I have ever read. This is mainly because it is from the viewpoint of three very different boys. There are almost no girls in it. This provided for an extremely different read for me. Even though it was different, I still really loved the book!

It starts with three best friends, Dave, Victor, and Curtis, deciding that they do not want to get jobs which their fathers want them to do. They sit in their clubhouse and think up a plan. All of a sudden, they figure out how they're going to get all of this money without working a minute during the summer. They are going to get all of their money in one harebrained scheme that they implement at the beginning of the summer. After that, it will be smooth sailing for the rest of the summer. Things don't go like they planned though as one thing after another keeps going wrong for them.

Overall, I really liked this book. It goes with my `do as little as possible to get what I want' attitude. In the end it showed a really important lesson as well (one that I have had to learn many a times because of my attitude): trying to go the easy way out usually makes it so that you have more work to do in the long run.

This book was a good read for both girls and boys. I lent it to my cousin (who is a boy) and he said that he loved it! He said that there were not that many books that a boy could read, but this is definitely one that he was going to recommend to all of his friends. All in all, "Project Sweet Life" by Brent Hartinger is a great read for anyone and everyone!