Bringing Down the Mouse

Charlie Numb3rs Adventures #1

by Ben Mezrich

Charlie Lewis goes on a roller coaster ride of risk, math, and gaming in this middle grade novel that parallels the New York Times bestselling Bringing Down the House, which inspired the movie 21 with Kevin Spacey.

Charlie Lewis is a nerd. All he's ever been good at is math and he's really good at math. So good that he's recruited by a group of kids determined to game the system at the biggest theme park in the world and win the grand prize. Soon Charlie is caught up in the excitement and thrill of using his math skills for awesomeness, but what's at stake may be more than he's willing to risk. How far will Charlie go for a chance at the ultimate reward?

Genres: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Childrens, Mathematics, Juvenile

336 pages, Hardcover

First published June 24, 2014

About the author

Ben Mezrich has created his own highly addictive genre of nonfiction, chronicling the amazing stories of young geniuses making tons of money on the edge of impossibility, ethics, and morality.

With his newest non-fiction book, Once Upon a Time in Russia, Mezrich tells his most incredible story yet: A true drama of obscene wealth, crime, rivalry, and betrayal from deep inside the world of billionaire Russian Oligarchs.

Mezrich has authored sixteen books, with a combined printing of over four million copies, including the wildly successful Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, which spent sixty-three weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and sold over 2 million copies in fifteen languages. His book, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal – debuted at #4 on the New York Times list and spent 18 weeks in hardcover and paperback, as well as hit bestseller lists in over a dozen countries. The book was adapted into the movie The Social Network –written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher – and was #1 at the box office for two weeks, won Golden Globes for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best score, and was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 3 including best Adapted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin. Mezrich and Aaron Sorkin shared a prestigious Scripter Award for best adapted screenplay as well.

Reviews

[Ryan Moles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bringing Down the Mouse by Ben Mezrich is a kid friendly version of the author's adult book, Bringing Down the House, which is about a group of MIT students who count cards, taking down Las Vegas. In Bringing Down the Mouse, Charlie Lewis is a very smart sixth grader who is bullied at school and suddenly is asked to join in on a mysterious club, called the Carnival Killers, by a cool seventh grade boy. Charlie learns that the Carnival Killers have mastered techniques to beat three carnival games. Charlie learns to beat the coin toss, dart game, and rope climbing using math, chemistry, and physics.

This book was just an "okay" book to read because there was not enough humor in it. Also, it was a bit confusing because there was not enough details about the setting. I did find it interesting to read about the different card games. I recommend this book to an eight grade reader who is interested in playing games to win money. All in all, I would give this book a four out of five stars.

[Bhavin Giridhara · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the book, Bringing Down The Mouse, by Ben Mezrich, Charlie’s smartness is mentioned in almost every chapter of the book. “With just 4 pieces of information, he could calculate how long it took to run down a bowl”. (Mezrich 175) I found this quote interesting because Charlie’s whole life revolved around working on mathematics, proving to everybody that he is a talented young man, and mathematics should be a subject in school that everyone should love. He also adores the study of all sciences, which is equally important to successfully beat the midway game system at a Disney World-Style Florida theme park called Incredo Land with his team. “The Whiz Kids’’. The stakes are high as well, with a grand prize of 8 lifetime passes to this world-famous amusement park, and an abundant amount of money given to each person on the team. This book is a phenomenal piece of literature, but I do have a few complaints about it. This book had an extremely complicated beginning, and I didn’t understand what was happening in the book until the 7th graders came over to Charlie during lunch to ask him to join their group to compete. Adding on, the chapters weren’t short enough, creating abundant bluff into the story, and I personally hoped it had lesser chapters to avoid reading the same details over and over, boring the reader. This can be proved when Charlie and his team are plotting out the game plan for the competition, taking up a whole chapter just for it, which eventually gets repetitious and dull to read. This novel wouldn’t be great, especially if you were a reader who reads before night, as you would probably be reading this book for over a month. Lastly, this may differ in opinions, but I think a 1st person point of view would be better, as Charlie is the main character, and it would be cool to see him deal with plotting out the strategy to win and make the book more indulging for the reader. My favorite character in this book is the main character, Charlie Lewis, the 6th grader. He is my favorite character because it’s awesome to see a younger person being recruited by kids older than him. He proves that age can’t stop us from doing what we want to do. Charlie led the “Whiz Kids” team to victory as well, which is the entire plot/story of the book. As a scientist, physician, and mathematician he fulfills all the needs to be the leader of this, and at the end successfully wins the competition along with his team, proving that he is a child genius. To conclude, I would rate this book a 7/10 due to all the complaints mentioned above, and wouldn’t recommend people, who have similar interests as me to read it but would also say it’s good, since it was inspiring to see a group of young children be so successful.

[Drucilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actual rating: 2.5 stars. If you're trying to find a STEM book for your kid, you can't go wrong here. Sometimes it was a little overwhelming for this English major to wade through discussions of physics and math formulas. I did like that Mezrich brought in the ethical component a bunch. You know, if a game is rigged, is it wrong to use tricks to even the playing field? That said, there are also way too many characters in this book. I had trouble keeping track of them. And too many things are just handwaved away.

[CR · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing

Bringing Down The Mouse is an awesome book with action, suspense, surprise, and mystery. I would rec come be for ages 8-11 but anyone would enjoy. The reason I gave it four stars is that the parts at school are pretty boring, and that they skip past Charlie being trained. Major plot twist at the, and a great book otherwise.

[Andy Li · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was pretty good. The reason I gave it a four out of five is because the book is a bit slow and it is a little bit hard to understand. Otherwise, it had a good mystery and the other elements mystery fans like. This book can also be very informational.

[Marco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall the book was fine but it took to long to get interesting

[Kerri E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting premise. Fun to learn the "tricks" to carnival games! The similarity of "incredo-land" to Disney World was a little excessive...made it seem less realistic in some ways. But, cute story, and interesting way to see a young kid reason through some (un)ethical situations.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gr 6-12 -- Charlie is a genius at math, and a whiz at probability. So he has a good idea what to expect from sixth grade at Nagassack Middle School: verbal humiliation and physical intimidation to go along with his good grades. He already has a semi-derogatory nickname, “Numbers,” and he and his friends at the genius table in the cafeteria get called the Dork Brigade or Nerd Herd. He was not expecting a couple of cool older kids to recruit him into a super-smart gang that meets in secret to practice beating carnival games. Who would?

Ben Mezrich is the Harvard-educated author of the adult book Bringing Down the House, about six MIT students who took their card-counting skills to Las Vegas and cleaned up. This age-adjusted version takes Charlie and his co-conspirators to a Disneyland-esque theme park, where they are manipulated by their mentor into beating a game with a substantial payout. Mezrich addresses themes of loyalty and honesty while keeping the action tight and the dialogue snappy. Unexpectedly engrossing - and a winner for Mythbusters fans.

Reviewed for Booklist Online

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading a lot more juvenile fiction lately. The reason is that I have four juvenile fiction readers in my house right now. So, I'm trying to be more aware of the options that are out there. And this summer, my newly cemented fifth grader is working on a list of 40 books for a Battle of the Books this coming school year. So I have committed to reading these books with him. He reads them and then passes them along to me. Bringing Down the Mouse by Ben Mezrich is our fourth book from the list. In it, Charlie Lewis is a whiz with numbers and is tapped to join a team of kids from his school that are trying to beat the midway game system at an amusement park to win 8 lifetime passes and a sum of money. Charlie uses his skills but also learns the group isn't exactly as it seems. I love that he has smarts, has friends with smarts, and has to make moral decisions. And where some kids books make things happen that adults know are highly unlikely, this book had relatively plausible explanations for how they got away with things. Which I appreciated.

[Angie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Charlie is great at math, but not so good in social situations. He is part of the nerd squad at school and gets bullied daily. So it comes as a surprise when cool kid Finn stands up to the bully for him one day. Finn recruits Charlie into the Carnival Killers, a group of middle schoolers learning how to beat carnival games so they can take down IncredoLand. The plan is to win the chance to spin the big wheel at IncredoLand and win lifetime tickets plus cash.

So this is a kid's version of Mezrich's adult book Bringing Down the House, which was about beating Las Vegas. I didn't read that one so I can't compare it to this one. I thought this book was a real chore to get through though. I found the whole thing improbable and pretty ridiculous and hard to read. None of the characters really seemed like realistic characters and the storyline defied belief. I'm not sure what age this is aimed at either. The cover screams young reader (it is truly awful), but the plot seems geared towards middle grade. Confusing mess.

[Cornmaven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kids' version of Mezrich's Bringing Down The House, with some life lessons about lying and justifying the end AND the means by joining the rigging of games.
Now, I don't think for a minute that anyone could get away with this for a minute at Disney World. So much in this story is unbelievably outrageous - do all of these rich kids have the ability to go wherever they want at 12? Hmmm...
Plus, if the idea of beating carnival games with math, chemistry, and physics is part of the plot, then why would IncredoLand accept that some kid won 630 tickets in a day? Assuming a 10 hour day, minus 90 minutes for walking to the midway, bathroom and food breaks, etc., that leaves winning more than 1 ticket a minute, continuously, if I am do MY math correctly.

It was great fun, but I think Mezrich let the kids get off too easily, too smoothly.

And, no fault of Mezrich's,but no self-respecting sixth grader is going to pick up this book with THAT cover. Epic fail on the cover.

[Brandon Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story tells a wild tale of a kid named Charlie Lewis, and his attempt to bring down a series of Midway carnival games located at a theme park extremely similar to "the happiest place on earth." Charlie is recruited into a secret group of other, highly intelligent, middle schoolers his age, nicknamed, "The Carnival Killers," and there, their focus is to win a cash prize and 8 lifetime passes to "Incredo Land," by beating the Midway Game's system. The writing and dialogue of this story is clean, and clear cut, something that Mr. Mezrich uncommonly publishes, but nevertheless, this thriller and action packed piece of literature is a read that might have a few bumps of immaturity along the way, but is something that is hard to put down once the reader is engrossed in Bringing Down the Mouse, one Midway game at a time.

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a 6th grade boy who sees the world in numbers and math equations.
I rated this book 3 stars,although this book did have some great detail and writing to it. I felt as if this book was hard to get into in the beginning,and sometimes I felt like the chapters weren't quick to finish. I would only wish that this book had less page chapters, so it's easy to ready before bed,only a few pages. However, I did like the creativeness in the writing and story. I thought it was nice twist to show you how Charlie ( Main Character a.k.a numbers) was able to plug his math knowlege into beating carnival games at Incredo Land with the help of a few mysterious friends, to win lifetime passes to the park and a cash prize. Overall I think this book has a nice twist to it, and some creative detail writing in it.

[Yapha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sixth grader Charlie Lewis loves math and science. With two scientist parents, it is no wonder that he has grown up seeing math not as a subject in school, but a big part of everyday life. When two mysterious seventh graders approach him with the premise that you can use math and science to beat the games on the Midway Fair, he his intrigued. When he is invited to join a super secret group at school that wants to pull the same thing over the biggest amusement park in the country, he is curious. Can their plan work? Is it really all math and science? A high stakes adventure that every math lover must read. Recommended for grades 4-8.

[Amy Scheck · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very cute. I had never thought about these science and math connections to carnival games, but the little tricks will definitely appeal to middle grade students. This is a book that would also be appropriate for higher-leveled second graders, which is something that I always look for!

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story! Loved the nerdy characters and the heist that they attempt to pull off. Perfect for voracious 3rd grade readers and up!

[Joy Lane]

AR 7.1 and 12 pts.
Lexile 1100 (ages 8-12)
I feel is is best for accelerated 4th, 5th, or 6th