Gordon Korman. Showoff. Scholastic, 2012.

Wow! We thought we had read all the books in the Gordon Korman Swindle Series, but somehow we missed Showoff.

As usual, Korman tells a wacky, maybe not quite believable, but entertaining story about Griffin Bing—the man with a plan—and his friends.

Readers may recall that Mr. Bing, Griffin’s father, is an inventor. He might remind us of Gyro Gearloose, Clyde Crashcup, Bunsen Honeydew, you get the idea. His specialty is making devices to help in orchards. His latest invention—still in testing stage—is the Spritz-O-Matic. He and Mrs. Bing are traveling in Europe to get potential clients in the fruit growing business.

So Griffin is spending six weeks with his best friend, the narcoleptic Ben Slovak. Ben, readers may recall, carries a service ferret who nips him whenever he starts nodding off.

Of course, there is Savannah Drysdale, the animal lover and owner of Luthor, the oversize Doberman terror. Savannah has taken Luthor to see a three time world champion beagle who is touring and preparing for the upcoming Globals in two months. Suddenly, Luthor cuts loose through the crowd and knocks over the champion dog, breaking its tail and disrupting the whole event. The authorities take Luthor to the dog pound, and the owners of the beagle sue the Drysdales for seven million dollars.

Even though he has sworn off plans, Griffin hatches one to save Luthor, a plan that is wilder and even more improbable than his others. He uses his parents’ credit card, given to him while they are away to spring Luthor from the pound. Then he decides to figure out a way to enter Luthor into a dog show to “prove” that Luthor is well trained and must have been provoked.

How Griffin and Ben keep the plan a secret from their parents for a month involves some of the others as well: Logan, the aspiring actor; Pitch, who loves climbing heights; and Melissa, the shy hacker. Oh, and someone else: the world-famous dog trainer or “dog whisperer” Dmitri Trebezhov.

Trebezhov has trained many champions, even giving the champion beagle its start. But three years ago he disappeared. He said that he was sick of the way that dogs were being treated by so many of the champions’ owners, so he quit. When Melissa looks up the owner of Trebezhov’s web site, WHOIS tells her it is Mr. I. Hateyou, 1313 Deadend St., Apt. 0, Pho NY.

Still, they manage to track him down, and when Trebezhov sees an opportunity to stick it to the dog show world, he miraculously transforms Luthor to be a real show dog. Luthor? He is now known as Lex Luthor Savannah Spritz-O-Matic.

Griffin and Dmitri both each get warning notes in Scotch taped newsprint not to enter Luthor in any dog shows—or else. It does get dangerous.

And it all comes together in a typical Gordon Korman climax: the dog whisperer, the real villain, the actor, the ferret (or, should I say, the not yet recognized breed of Mongolian ferret hound), Griffin, Griffin’s new love-hate “girlfriend, the Spritz-O-Matic, and more. Have fun.