08 February 2009 PROJECT SWEET LIFE by Brent Hartinger, Harper Teen, February 2009, 282p., ISBN: 978-0-06-082411-2

"Somedays won't end ever, and somedays pass on by,

I'll be working here forever, at least until I die.

Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't

I'm supposed to get a raise next week, you know damn well I won't." -- Huey Lewis, "Working for a Living"

"I certainly understand that some people, even some fifteen-year-olds, need to work. They're saving for college, or they have to help pay bills around the house. For them, a summer job at fifteen isn't optional. But my dad makes a good living as a land surveyor. He wears silk ties! And my mom is stay-at-home. We aren't poor.

"The adults won't tell you this, but I absolutely knew it in my bones to be true: Once you take that first summer job, once you start working, you're then expected to keep working. For the rest of your life! Once you start, you can't stop, ever -- not until you retire or you die.

"Sure, I knew I'd have to take a job next summer. But now, I had two uninterrupted months of absolute freedom ahead of me -- two summer months of living life completely on my own terms. I knew they were probably my last two months of freedom for the next fifty years.

"The point is, dad or no dad, I was going to be taking a job the summer of my fifteenth year over my dead body."

Dave and his two buddies -- Curtis and Victor -- are sunk. Their fathers -- who all work and play together -- have been conversing about their sons and their sons' need to build character through summer jobs. But the three fifteen-year-old friends figure that there has got to be a way that they can use their heads and avoid spending the next ten weeks slaving away at minimum wage gigs. All they need to do, they reckon, is brainstorm a quick and effective way of accumulating roughly seven grand, split it three ways, pretend that they are heading off to work each day, and enjoy their summer in the manner in which it is supposed to be enjoyed. They dub their efforts "Project Sweet Life."

"One of the best things about a fictional job is that you can completely set your own hours. The hours I set for my 'lifeguarding job' were afternoons and evenings. That meant that I could sleep in every day of the week, and there was nothing my parents could do about it (except grumble continuously and bang pots and pans in the kitchen during breakfast, proving once and for all that adults are not necessarily any more mature than the teenagers they criticize).

Following the trio through their attempts to effect their monetary stimulus plan, we encounter a series of over-the-top money making schemes, some very evil bad guys, a double-crossing grandmother type, grand escapes, a paternal uncle who is the antithesis of Dave's dad, and some significant historical information about the underside of Tacoma Washington -- where the story is set and where author Brent Hartinger was raised. It all comes together exquisitely in a fast-paced, fun, and occasionally freaky tale on (and sometimes under) the streets and shores of Tacoma. In addition to all of the action, I especially love how Hartinger has thoroughly woven an important and unrecognized historical event into the heart of the story.

But the question remains: What WILL happen when the dads come looking for bank statements or insist on stopping by at work to see how it's going?

Richie Partington, MLIS

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