“The Life and Crimes of Bernetta Wallflower” features the eponymous protagonist, a girl who has been kicked out of her private middle school for operating a cheating ring, which was the work of another student, Ashley, who managed to frame Bernetta for the whole thing. As the book opens, clearly Ashley is the villain and Bernetta is the good guy.
But if Bernetta is to return to her private school, she must come up with $9000 tuition over the summer, because her scholarship has been revoked and her parents can’t afford it. So she teams up with Gabe, a boy she seemingly meets by chance, to work together as con artists all summer to "earn" the money.
So: Bernetta and Gabe are in fact every bit as repulsive as Ashley, and that’s the problem with this book. It’s well written, and the plot is carefully thought out. But all three main characters are child sociopaths. Sure, in the end, Ashley gets her comeuppance and Bernetta and Gabe decide the life of crime is not for them… but it isn’t enough. Through most of the book, our two main characters are engaging in criminal activity that would put an adult in prison. They go through a whole barrage of scams to steal money from innocent, often very kind, people. (And Graff explains how each scam is done, so there could even be a few readers who decide to try out some of these things, having had a brief lesson in the book.) At the end of the book, none of their victims will get back what was stolen from them, and the two children’s remorse seems more of the “this is too much trouble and too risky” variety than the “what I have done is morally wrong” variety.
The reader who is not familiar with the way a sociopath’s mind works may swallow the conclusion of the book and decide that the children have reformed themselves. But anyone who has read much about the sociopathic condition… or worse, been the victim of a sociopath… will know that children who engage in this type of activity (like adults) are incapable of feeling empathy for their victims and view a moral conscience as a weakness. They will not be reformed, and as soon as Bernetta or Gabe come up short of cash again, as all people do, they will begin stealing from kindhearted strangers again. ( )

Well that was different.  Lots to discuss.  Parents are a little too conveniently trusting, and big sister a little too conveniently wise & kind, but the book as a whole is exciting and charming. ( )

Elements of this book worked really well - Bernetta's struggle to determine the right thing to do, the magic tricks and con tricks. However, there's a couple of big problems as well. I'm not sure the movie quotes and references work that well because while I recognized them, I have no confidence that the intended upper grade school audience would recognize them. The biggest problem I had though was that Bernetta's parents just seemed to assume and accept that she was guilty despite her protestations of innocence. This seemed particularly odd to me since the older sister believed in Bernetta's innocence and was well respected by her parents and the school. Perhaps this wouldn't bother kids so much, but my parents would have been raising quite the ruckus in the same situation. This could work well for discussion though since Bernetta makes some poor choices and struggles with a lot of decisions. ( )

Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

Bernetta Wallflower knows two things: 1) a lot of stuff about magic since her father owns a magic club known as Trunk Number Eight, and 2) people who appear to be your friends can turn on you and leave you with nothing.

Accused of running a cheating ring in her private school, Bernetta finds herself without a scholarship to Mount Olive for next year. Because of her problems at school, she is also grounded for the entire summer. She needs $9,000 in her bank account if she hopes to return to Mount Olive for seventh grade, and babysitting appears to be the only thing she is qualified to do. Then Bernetta meets Gabe, a self-professed con artist, and he offers to cut her in on the action he has planned for the summer.

Using the sleight-of-hand skills she has learned at her father's magic club and her natural acting talents, Bernetta joins forces with Gabe to earn some serious money. Instead of reporting to her fake babysitting gig, Bernetta meets Gabe at the mall where they begin running scam after scam to earn the money she needs to replace her lost scholarship. After all, it's for a good cause, so how could anyone object?

Everything seems to be going smoothly until Ashley Johansson shows up. She is to blame for Bernetta's trouble at school and the suspended scholarship, and now here she is threatening even more trouble. Can Bernetta get what she needs and still find a way to live with her actions? One thing she does learn is that everyone has more than one option in life; it's just about which option you choose.

Lisa Graff's THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF BERNETTA WALLFLOWER is a whirlwind adventure in petty crime and accepting the consequences of one's decisions. Graff begins each chapter with a new magic term, and readers will be fascinated with the description of well-known cons used by Bernetta and Gabe. Bernetta's story is sure to entertain, but at the same time present readers with challenging questions about doing the right thing. ( )

Suspended and grounded for crimes she did not commit, 12-year-old Bernetta decides to become the criminal everyone thinks she is and teams up with Gabe to spend the summer conning people out of their money. He reads people and she's got the lightening fast fingers -- a perfect combination. But when it turns out he is way better at memorizing movie quotes than telling the truth, Bernetta is in for a hard time. With a complete cast of lovable (and hate-able) characters, this is a fun summer read...as long as it doesn't give anyone any ideas. ( )