My Brilliant Idea (and How It Caused My Downfall)

Meet fifteen-year-old Jack “The Jackdaw” Dawson, a young man with a serious plan. Daydreaming in class one day, Jack gets an idea he knows can't fail: an app that stops you from daydreaming in class. (Ahem . . . ) Fame, glory, and tons of money seem just around the corner. But Jack runs into some trouble, and suddenly this sure thing doesn’t seem quite so sure. Ricocheting from the absurd to the profound in his first book for teens, Stuart David uses his extraordinary intelligence and wit to tell the story of a boy trying to scheme his way out from under the weight of his parents’ expectations. Readers will root for The Jackdaw from beginning to end. To pull it off, he’ll have to wrangle a cast of unlikely allies, outsmart his rivals, and somehow win over the one person who can make it happen—and who happens to hate his guts. What could possibly go wrong? Elaborate Schemes: From faking a fight to arranging a secret nude portrait session, Jack’s plans get more complicated—and more hilarious—at every turn. Unlikely Alliances: To get his app built, The Jackdaw has to team up with the school’s most eccentric programmer, a bohemian artist, and his long-suffering cousin, Harry. Witty Narrator: Told with the laugh-out-loud, self-deprecating voice of a boy who’s convinced he’s an ideas man, even when everything is going spectacularly wrong. Parental Expectations: For Jack, this isn’t just about getting rich; it’s about escaping his dreaded future in either a bottling factory or a boring office.