PROJECT SWEET LIFE by Brent Hartinger

Fifteen year old Dave can hardly believe it when his dad announces he expects Dave to get a job this summer.  Dave's two best friends tell him their dads made the same announcement.  This was supposed to be their last summer of freedom, but maybe if they put their heads together they can come up with a way to outwit their parents and save their summer.

The idea seems simple.  It's a two step plan.  Step 1: Lie to their folks and tell them they have jobs.  Step 2: Find a quick way to make the $7,000 they would have made if they really did get jobs for the summer.

After some discussion, Dave and his two buddies decide they have enough cool stuff to have a really nice garage sale.  A garage sale would only last one day and selling their stuff would surely end in a tidy profit.  Then the rest of the summer would be theirs.  They decided to call it Project Sweet Life.

With the help of Dave's uncles, the sale goes off without a hitch and earns them almost the entire $7,000.  Unfortunately, the money ends up paying for a nasty accident resulting from a toppling stack of boxes and a falling knick-knack that causes major damage to the neighbor's fancy sports car.  Now it looks like they will
need a new plan.

As each chapter ticks off another week in the boys' summer, it becomes more and more obvious that Project Sweet Life is becoming more work than anyone imagined.  Catching bank robbers and collecting the reward money, guessing the total number of jellybeans in a giant jar at the mall, and searching for hidden treasure, all turn out to be disappointments that take more effort than if the boys had just gotten themselves those summer jobs. 

PROJECT SWEET LIFE follows Dave and his friends as they plan one caper after another in hopes of avoiding actual work.  Author Brent Hartinger fills their summer with enough crazy adventures to entertain most readers, and at the same time convince them that it is probably better to accept the inevitable and just listen to their parents.