swindlers and swindling

After unscrupulous collector S. Wendell Palamino cons him out of a valuable baseball card, sixth-grader Griffin Bing puts together a band of misfits to break into Palomino's heavily guarded store and steal the card back, planning to use the money to finance his father's failing invention, the Smart Pick fruit picker.

A con man in the guise of a traveling salesman gets off the train in River City, Iowa. He convinces the town and the town librarian to finance a children's marching band instead of a pool hall.

"On the South Side of Chicago in 1974, Linda Taylor reported a phony burglary, concocting a lie about stolen furs and jewelry. The detective who checked it out soon discovered she was a welfare cheat who drove a Cadillac to collect ill-gotten government checks. And that was just the beginning: Taylor . . . was also a kidnapper, and possibly a murderer. A desperately ill teacher, a combat-traumatized Marine, an elderly woman hungry for companionship--after Taylor came into their lives, all three ended up dead under suspicious circumstances. But nobody--not the journalists who touted her story, not the police, and not presidential candidate Ronald Reagan-- seemed to care about anything but her welfare thievery. Growing up in the Jim Crow South, Taylor was made an outcast because of the color of her skin. As she rose to infamy, the press and politicians manipulated her image to demonize poor black women. Part social history, part true-crime investigation, Josh Levin's . . . book . . . is a[n] . . . account of American racism, and an expose of the 'welfare queen' myth, one that fueled political debates that reverberate to this day"--Provided by publisher.

Jolene Chastain, a con artist since early childhood, assumes the identity of a girl who went missing years before and weaves a new life of deception with a wealthy Boston family.

A clever mouse uses the threat of a terrifying creature to keep from being eaten by a fox, an owl, and a snake--only to have to outwit that creature as well.

Fifteen-year-old Kat schemes her way into the best boarding school, hoping to leave the thieving antics of her family behind her, but Hal, a former co-conspirator, appears on campus to tell Kat that a powerful mobster believes her father stole art from a priceless collection, and in order to save him, Kat will have to recover the paintings.

There's a mystery in the city of Zootopia! Can rookie police officer Judy Hopps crack the case with the help of a fast-talking, con artist fox named Nick Wilde?.

"On a day that begins like any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance. She realizes very quickly that the letter was sent to the wrong person--but also that the cold-reading skills she's honed as a tarot card reader might help her claim the money. Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceased...where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the center of it"--Provided by publisher.

Brynn Hilder's academic record and talent for running cons earns her a place at Dr. Odin's exclusive private school Vale Hall, where students are trained to collect secrets that have the power to overthrow corrupt politicans.

During her thirteenth summer, the "eventually internationally recognized writer" Lily Blennerhassett struggles to cope with life in her tremendously "uncool" family after meeting a much better one.