Troublemakers

by Gregg Maxwell Parker

"We hate school, but trust me, it doesn’t like us either."
- Carlos in "Troublemakers"

There's the athletes, the straight-A students, the jazz band, the computer club... and then there's these kids. Meet Carlos, Tina, and Byron, three sixth graders who have two objectives in life: to avoid homework at all costs and to make lots of money so they can buy a sweet car and learn to drive it. Their knack for get-rich-quick schemes and clever methods of cheating are only surpassed by their failure to notice how badly most of their plans blow up in their faces.

Gregg Maxwell Parker’s first title for middle grade and young adult readers will take you on a side-splitting, rude, and somehow encouraging ride through the perils of middle school with three kids who absolutely refuse to be told what to do. Whether dreaming up ways to con classmates out of their allowances, going to incredible lengths to jump on a trampoline, or navigating the ins and outs of snack-based time travel, they've always got something up their sleeves, even if it usually ends up getting them detention.

This book is for anyone who knows what the inside of the principal's office looks like, who looks at the happy families on TV like a dog looks at a smartphone, and who can't fathom why any sane person would ever want to become a teacher.

Get ready: this one will be a blast for troublemakers of all ages.

Genres: Students

198 pages, Paperback

Published December 4, 2019

About the author

Gregg Maxwell Parker is the award-eligible author of five books, including the "Troublemakers" middle grade series. A graduate of the University of Southern California, he's worked as a screenwriter, hog trimmer, dust wrangler, peach foreman, skull belayer, and screenwriter. You can find more of his work at greggmaxwellparker.com.

Reviews

[Miranda Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Middle school is a pretty great scam, when you get down to it."

Middle schoolers Carlos, Tina and Byron are best friends, partners in crime and mischief makers of the highest order.

The Good Track

"Kids are getting big allowances now. They've got money, and they need someone to help them spend it."

Carlos is the idea guy.

He's always coming up with sneaky plans to make money and induce mayhem in this school.

Do you want a sip of a controlled substance at school(caffeinated soda), cheat on a test or infiltrate a sports team - he's your guy.

Just be careful if you ask him for help - you never quite know how things will go.

Armando's Trampoline

"I knew I couldn't go straight for the trampoline - I'd have to romance him a bit first. I'm an old fashioned girl and trampolining is really more of a second-date idea."

Tina is the muscle and the girl of the group.

She knows what she wants and she will manipulate Carlos, Byron, Armando and who ever else is in her way to get what she wants.

But when Armando thinks he can twist the situation to his advantage, let's just say things don't go to plan.

The Old Chips

"Didn't you guys have this exact same conversation yesterday?"

Byron is the rich kid and the crybaby of the group.

One suspicious packet of chips and an extra-large sneeze leads to...the day repeating itself?

Is it just Byron or has the world truly gone mad?

Overall

This was a surprisingly cute book!

I really liked the way Parker portrays Carlos, Tina and Byron - they felt like real people rather than characters of the book.

Each chapter was told from a different member of the trio's perspective. At first I was a little thrown by the abrupt change but a few pages into Tina's viewpoint, I began to love the swap.

Each kid was the star of their story with their friends being varying levels naive or bumbling minions. It was so much fun to see how the characters viewed each other and how vastly that changed upon swapping.

The plot didn't have an overarching Big Bad and was more of a slice-of-life book, but it was quick paced and enjoyable.

I really enjoyed this one and am keeping my fingers crossed that their adventures continue someday!

With thanks to the author for a free copy in exchange for an honest review

YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Snapchat @miranda_reads

[MissBecka Gee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reminds me of every Adam Sandler movie...
Completely pointless, but you laugh anyway.

DRC received via Sandra's Book Club

[Gregg Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

It really lets you review your own book? Okay, it's brilliant. The author is very handsome. Give me money.

[Tajwar Shakir · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Troublemakers" by Gregg Maxwell Parker is a work of fiction based upon the story of three middle school's naughty kids named Byron, Carlos and Tina. It is hilarious and a fun to read book. It talks about the psyche of the kids in the middle school quite well. Gregg has depicted the mind-set of these kids very well and handled the subject superbly throughout his book.

The moment I started reading the book it reminded me of the movie “Problem Child.” As these three kids have been the great mischievous evil genius ones. I loved reading about their all-mischievous acts, they gave me a good laughter. I want to appreciate the art of characterization by Gregg and he has done justice to his characters as well by including the girl’s character in this mischievous team of the trio. It is often mistaken as the boys to be naughtiest but Tina's character has added not only the flavour but some additional colours to this “Troublemakers.”

I really enjoyed reading about all mischievous deeds of these kids but “The Economist's" episode was really hilarious. Their businessman like mindedness has been depicted as top-notch by the author. The schemes they came up with were really suggesting their sharp mindedness throughout the book. I wondered at the end of my read, if such kids would have really existed in the real-life they would have been more successful as the businessmen than the real ones.

I shall rate the book with 4 stars for its remarkable storyline, characterization and the editing. It is a must-read for the parents as sometimes parents are be fooled by their own kids in planning their mischief acts. It is recommended for the teachers too to spot the naughty students and in order to understand the psyche of the kids during the middle school time period. This middle school period really awakes the adventurous side of the kids in just their quest to know more and more that often leads them to dangerous scenarios at the end. But I would not recommend it for the children below 18 age because as this may give them some more mischievous ideas to indulge into at their schools. Overall, it's an enjoyable read if you are into reading children’s fiction and even if you like to read about the child’s psychology books.


"Middle school is the perfect place for enterprising young minds like myself and my associates."

[Alice McKnight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Troublemakers was an absolutely delightful read, If you're looking for a story to make you laugh, I'd highly recommend it, especially since it can be finished all in one sitting.

Carlos, Tina, and Byron are in sixth grade, but they're more concerned with their own schemes to care too much about classes. Instead they're coming up with ways to make an extra buck, making plans to infiltrate a birthday party to get a few minutes on a trampoline, and even dabbling in time travel.

The only complaint I could possibly voice is that even though the POV shifts between the three children whenever a new story is being told, there isn't really any indication of the change. The writing of the characters is so similar that there isn't a distinct shift in voice between the three troublemakers and the only way to tell when the change has happened is when the reader notices that "I" is being used by someone else.

Even so, the shenanigans this trio got up to were tremendously entertaining. I would love to read more of Carlos', Tina's, and Byron's adventures in the future.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[James Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

A refreshingly funny "kids" book. I'm 54 and a father of three, so it's difficult for me to say what age group this is for. Teenagers I would guess. Parents, however, should read this book too. It is a fun and realistic look through the eyes of middle school kids. There are a lot of adult themes here, so I couldn't recommend just handing this to an eleven year old without reading it first. Nothing R-rated of course, mostly just harmless pranks, jokes and schemes. The author does a wonderful job of capturing the essence of a band of middle school friends who have their own ideas about what they want to learn, how they want to get rich, and how they plan to accomplish all this. I say parents should read it first, not only because of the themes, but also because this book is hilarious. It definitely took me back to my school days. I suggest not drinking soda while reading off your laptop. My keyboard is now quite sticky. Definitely some laugh out loud moments. Highly recommended. I really enjoyed this!

[Martin Dolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A review of Troublemakers, by Gregg Maxwell Parker
A tongue-in-cheek look at life in middle school, as told, in turn, in the voice of three rascally grade six students. This story stresses the importance of succeeding in business before you have to waste so much time in high school; and tells you just about everything you probably did not want to know about cheating on tests and driving your teachers to distraction. It should contain at least one thorough belly laugh on almost every page.

[L.J. Scar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laugh out loud funny, I loved Troublemakers from the first page. Carlos, Tina, and Byron are best friends. They are enterprising, innovative, devious but hilarious little future hoodlums who wittily tell their own section of the story about all the hi-jinks they get into.

Troublemakers was a fast free. Amusing and enjoyable, I would definitely recommend it to anyone over 11 with a sense of humor.

[J.J. Lair · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the first 5 pages there were laugh out moments. The talking back to adults was funny and not snotty. The antics were funny, The Economist bit. The swim club. The trampoline friendship-loved it.

[Kath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun story that I will use to try and get my reluctant readers to read.

[Tony Parsons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gregg Maxwell Parker 187 (198, # 5637) Troublemakers 12/30 posted 1/3/20
The Good Track 11
South Central Los Angeles, CA. The Carver MS 6th-graders (12) are: Carlos (narrator, entrepreneur, leader), Tina (A/A, enforcer), & Byron (Chinese/British, bagman).
Carlos can provide you with any kind of school supply or other personal necessities you might need.
The 3 of them designed an all-purpose Camel-Puff (soda jacket) coat lined with 15 plastic bags of various sizes that held the individual students (customers) every need imaginable.

Day-1. Ron (school security guard) stopped Byron. A trail of Monster Energy drink had followed him in the front door.
Principal Caldwell (A/A, female) was not pleased to see them.
They lucked out & were not suspended only a severe verbal warning.
Another brilliant idea the 3 of them came up with was to buy a magazine subscription to The Economist from the Junior Business Achievers after-school club.
The front cover from The Economist was removed & then attached to the front cover of a dirty magazine.

Walla, it was left in the boy’s bathroom. How genius is that?
The girls water polo team: Tina & Dynamite Dani Driver had a fart contest. Gross! Girls. Come on.
Some of the other ornery things the 3 thought up was: a water gun filled with Kool-Aid, spray it on kids cloths you don’t like, a classroom clay bomb (BOOM!), & wandering an old folks’ home & yelling “Hi, or yo” to all the Grandma’s that are living there.
This week is parent-teacher meeting.
Other students are Kenji, Tami, Mayo, Melissa Marquez, Dustin, Malik, Jason, Armando (rich kid), & R.J.
Armando’s Trampoline 69
Armando had invited everyone to his birthday party. Food, drinks, & a trampoline.
REVENGE!
The Old Chips 125
Bizarro’s store. Everything was outdated & cheap. Carlos, Tina (A/A, enforcer), & Byron did their shopping.

What was the trio’s next scheme/scam?

I’m a retired MH/school social worker.

I did not receive any type of compensation for reading & reviewing this book. While I receive free books from publishers & authors, I am under no obligation to write a positive review. Only an honest one.

A very awesome book cover, great font & writing style. A very well written urban MS-up humor
book. It was very easy for me to read/follow from start/finish & never a dull moment. There were no grammar/typo errors, nor any repetitive or out of line sequence sentences. Lots of exciting scenarios, with several twists/turns & a great set of unique characters to keep track of. This could also make another great urban MS-up humor age movie, an animated cartoon, or better yet mini TV series. It wasn’t as exciting as I expected so I will only rate it at 4/5 stars.

Thank you for the free author; Goodreads; MakingConnections; Making Connections discussion group talk; Author; PDF book.
Tony Parsons MSW (Washburn)

[mer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book consisted of three point-of-views; Carlos, Tina and Byron. These three are best friends and they are a notoriously troublemakers in their school.

From Carlos’ POV, he’s the leader and he’s an innovative, creative and business-minded person. His entrepreneur ideas may be brilliant; earn some money from selling stuffs to kids at school. But it is still wrong.

From Tina’s POV, she is strong girl but surprisingly, regardless how intimidating her looks, as she said Rihanna+Chris Hemsworth mix, she’s actually has empathy. She forgives easily too. She has a good heart.

From Byron’s POV, he is highly imaginative and quiet funny. Also, he’s weird. I don’t have much to say about his story because his more fantasy alike.

[Samantha Henthorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hilarious story with a catalogue style narrative, listing 'every trick in the book' as to how these three middle-school friends misbehave and plot scams. Some of which written with dark comedy such as the 'Hi, Grandma' game. Initially, I was conflicted by the characters they are not easy to warm to, but as the story unfolded, we learn that they are the product of their situation. Readers will be glad of confidence built by three friends who refuse to be bullied because of poverty. Carlos, Tina and the expertly named Byron go on a journey of delinquency when karma serves a fitting twist.

[S.C. Yung · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found these to be really fun and accessible classic voice-y middle-grade adventures overall, and thought the last one was especially creative and enjoyable—but… it feels like a bit of a detrimental portrayal in that all three of these middle school terrors are from single-parent POC households, more than one of which seems to be poor.

Admittedly, I’d feel a bit better about it if the author shared one or more of these identities, but he doesn’t have any social media or identifying info on his website.

[Kitiera Morey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy of Troublemakers for an honest review.

This is a fast-paced, engaging novella that I knocked out in a single afternoon (maybe took me an hour total). The tone is well-suited for its middle school demographic, though I didn’t feel the narrative was childish. The three main characters come across as their intended ages, and that is not an insult.

On reflection, the three different scenarios that occur are reminiscent of an Ed, Edd & Eddy episode. It took me back to my childhood when that was one of the Cartoon Network shows I adored, and I was smiling all over again. I wish there had been more.

My only complaint is that the three main characters all have very similar voices. Now, this is understandable to an extent. They’re best friends and none of them take much coaxing to go along with the newest harebrained scheme. But there’s not too much variation in how they think. I didn’t mind too much, and this didn’t make it hard to follow the POV changes in each story. I just would have liked a more noticeable difference.

Troublemakers is an enjoyable, cute read that had me smiling a lot. I would have loved this when I was in middle school. A solid 4 out of 5 stars.

[MJ Belo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book on Goodreads, like almost all books. I was like "Oh. Another book about middle school pranksters. Probably like every other book about middle school pranksters."
Let me tell you something.
Some people will hate this book. It has no plot at all. There is no exposition, no climax, and no resolution. The whole book is the climax/rising action. There is no conflict.
Let me explain. Pretty much each chapter has its own plot. Each chapter is told by a different prankster. But, it's still not a plot, it's hard to explain.
The Troublemakers are 3 kids, who don't care about anything in life except for scamming people. It's like no other prankster book. But, the last chapter is the best.
Read the book. You'll see what I'm talking about, but I'll give you a clue. "Old Chips"

[Rolanda Smith-Lyles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Byron, Tina, and Carlos are best friends in middle school. The trio make it their daily goal to come up with ideas to cheat in class and make money hustling up other students. I enjoyed the way Gregg tells their story from the perspective of a child. The language was appropriate for their characters. I found it amusing that they worked so hard to just get by in school, but if they put half the effort they put in scams in classwork, they would be doing way better. I enjoyed reading their story and watching them make such immature and hilarious decisions. Great read.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my opinion, this book wasn't that good. This is because there were many different problems or conflicts in each chapter. I usually like a conflict all together. The book is about 3 kids who are always finessing people into giving them money. They are crazy about money! They always get into some type of trouble!

[Paula Finn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Held my interest all the way through; great humor!
Such a fun and funny read! I actually laughed out loud several times while reading (and I rarely do that!) I found the characters endearing in their mischief and I was impressed with the author’s very clever ideas for their pranks.

I enjoyed every page, and strongly recommend this for adults as well as kids.

[Debra Hahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kids , & Brewing Up TROUBLE

Some kids are just too smart for their own good. The kids gave the school
and all the kids a run for for t toheir money. From cheating on test's to
4getting out of the class room all together. Getting the rest of the kids mixed up in their schemes as well. A good fun book to read. Will keep you laughing.
Debra H.

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book... well.. I almost forgot what middle school could be like until now. This book is well written and enjoyable to read. Takes you back to younger days and down memory lane... good or bad.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new twist on an old trope

I wasn’t sure about this book (even with many glowing reviews) but it was actually pretty humorous. I woke my fiancé up so many times I had to go finish the book on the couch 🛋

[Book Reviews By Sophie McC]

Review coming soon!

[Zoya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this one, the writing was funny and witty and I was cracking up the whole time. I loved the trio but Carlos was my favorite.

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book! I laughed out loud multiple times and thoroughly enjoyed how it was written. The honesty of each character is refreshing and relatable for my sixth grade students.

[Naji Banks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Addicting

This book is very interesting, I love that each chapter it talks about each kid. Recommended for 13-16 year Olds but it is good for all ages above 10!

[Alexis Papakostas · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book! I laughed out loud multiple times and thoroughly enjoyed how it was written. The honesty of each character is refreshing and relatable for my sixth grade students.

[Katelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book!! It was really funny ♥

[Debra Hahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

ALL READYnDID!,,,

[Bookish_B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun book for my 6th grader and I to read. We laughed so much.