Jonathan Harlen

This book reminds me of Horowitz's Diamond Brothers series and also a little like Artmeis Fowl in that he is a young guy with a massive older sidekick to help and protect him. Fletcher has taken over his father's Sports Detective Agency which is housed at the A.I.S. in Canberra. His parents are overseas recovering from a car accident supposedly caused by Samson Bolivar ( his father's arch enemy) & Fletcher is determined to bring this evil villian to justice. Meanwhile, he is hired by cricket star who has suddenly hit rock bottom because he has lost the lucky pig's foot that was given to him by Don Bradman. In his quest to retrieve this talisman - believed to give its possessor superhuman sports skills - Fletcher and his bodyguard Frank the Turk - must battle a crazed junior tennis star, a psychotic hitman, Bolivar and of course, explain all their actions ( including blowing up a wing of the AIS) to some very skeptical police officers. Amusing and entertaining light boys fluff!… (altro)

I would definitely read more books by this author; I think grade four or five boys would find this book very enjoyable.
This is a hilarious book! When the Cadwallers win $40 million dollars, they decide that they'd rather raze their house and rebuild than move. The Judge family could not possibly anticipate how obnoxious the Cadwallers become once they have lots of money. The Judge children, Toby and Emma, soon realizes that they can not possibly exist side by side, and they're determined to get rid of their neighbours. Toby is a genius, and figures out a way to capture and program cockroaches and bees to tiny, miniature remote controls, and he and Emma launch an insect army at their neighbours.… (altro)

Hector and his father Juan are immigrants from Nicaragua and when Hector is bullied by two Russian boys in the same block of flats, his father does the unthinkable and takes his shotgun into the Stolkov's apartment and kills the two goldfish. Hector is mortified by his father's drunken rages and other behaviour and he sets about trying to repair the feud between the two families by building a boat with the twins and dating their younger sister. But what will Juan say when Hector shows him how much he wants to be a fisherman and not a scholar like his father wishes. This book contains violence, sex, swearing and unpunished stealing. It is also on the VPRC.… (altro)