Gordon Korman. Jackpot. New York: Scholastic, 2014. Print.

Jackpot is the latest in Gordon Korman’s series featuring Griffin Bing, “the man with the plan.” This book is fun, too, though Swindle is the cleverest and Hideout is the wildest—at least, of the books in the series this reviewer has read.

Griffin and his buddies manage to sting their nemesis and class bully, Darren Vader. One of them has read in the paper that an unclaimed state lottery ticket worth nearly $30 million is about to expire. They plant a bogus article that Vader “discovers” saying that a lady in their town is sure that she had the ticket but fears that she accidentally threw it away.

After dumpster diving for a week or so, Darren discovers the setup at the same time the middle school is holding an assembly on bullying. Darren complains in the assembly that Griffin has bullied him. Griffin feels ostracized and is trying to get back into the good graces of his friends, who for the most part are victims of bullies like Darren.

Even his narcoleptic best friend Ben is avoiding him. Great Dane Luthor also feels left out since dog whisperer Savannah started pet-sitting a cute kitten. Griffin ends up taking care of Luthor until Savannah is ready to return the kitten or return to her first love, the dog.

Meanwhile, Griffin does make a genuine plan to try to find the real missing lottery ticket before it expires. Darren discovers his plan and tries to imitate it as does a third boy, a newcomer to Cedarville named Victor Phoenix (who, Griffin learns, is really named Victor Feeney). Griffin is really getting his thunder stolen in this story!

Like Korman’s other books in this series, Jackpot has a rowdy eleventh-hour resolution. Unlike the others, it has a couple of more serious themes for kids: bullying (this year’s cause in American schools—obesity is so 2013!) and friendship (always in style in American schools at least since Natty and Chingachgook).