Slacker

March 7, 2016
In this highly entertaining tale from Korman (Masterminds), eighth grader Cam Boxer lives for playing video games with his two best friends. When he ignores his mother's dinner instructions while playing, resulting in the fire department breaking down the door and a house that smells like burnt ziti, Cam's parents' threats of pulling the plug on his gaming push him to create a fictitious school club. Cam's goal with the Positive Action Group is to mollify his parents without actually doing anything, so he's horrified when students and faculty latch on to the concept and club. Cam's irritation with the club's popularity provides lots of laughs (" âWell, I'm the president,' I grumbled, âand I still say that the Positive Action Group doesn't exist' ") as the story unfolds via the perspectives of multiple amusing characters, including classmate Daphne, who wants to save a homeless beaver; Mr. Fanshaw, a guidance counselor who feels that his hour has finally come; and Jennifer, an ultra-achieving high school student who feels threatened by Cam's club's success. Upbeat, inspiring, and full of Korman's signature sense of humor. Ages 8â12.

February 15, 2016
What could get the "Leonardo da Vinci of slackers" off his gaming couch? Thirteen-year-old Cameron Boxer's worked hard on his "lifestyle": minimal effort at school and maximum time perfecting his gaming skills. His goal? Winning the Rule the World tournament with one of his two best friends, technical genius Pavel or loyal Chuck...but they have to avoid Evil McKillPeople, a Canadian gamer who for some reason has it in for Cam. Then the Great Ziti Inferno (Cam was too busy playing to take the ziti out of the oven as instructed) causes Cam's parents to insist he unplug and do something with his life. The friends cook up a fake club, the Positive Action Group. They make Cam president and put a page on the school's website, attracting the attention of do-gooder Daphne, who wants to save a beaver, class-president candidate Jordan, who needs a leg up in the election, along with reprobates and jocks who need to do community service. Suddenly the fake club is real, doing actual good, and sucking up valuable game time; that was never the plan! Prolific Korman turns in another group caper that would fit easily in his Swindle series. Cam's borderline unlikable, and a few in the supporting cast don't act like real people; but the tale, narrated by Cam and several others, is a pleasant diversion, though it's not notable for its diversity. Korman's fans will be right at home with this stand-alone novel. (Fiction. 9-12)

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March 1, 2016

Gr 4-7-Korman's many fans will not be disappointed with this latest novel. Cameron is a gamer; he doesn't like to do anything else. Spending every moment he can playing video games, he sometimes gets carried away. This is how the kitchen burns down and he loses his gaming privileges. His parents decide he needs to get involved in a group and interact with other kids his own age. So he and his friends create the Positive Action Group as a front so they can simply continue gaming. Things get hairy when people become interested in actually joining the group and it gets a faculty advisor. Suddenly the fake group has become very real. Korman has a talent for writing engaging characters in wacky, laugh-out-loud plotlines. This story is told through multiple perspectives, though it is Cameron who stands out. He talks and acts like a real gamer, lending the high jinks an undercurrent of authenticity. As the Positive Action Group becomes real, things begin to change for Cameron as he learns the value in helping others. VERDICT Short chapters and chuckle-inducing moments give this book a charm that is hard to resist. An excellent pick for reluctant readers.-Patrick Tierney, Dr. Martin Luther King Elementary School, Providence, RI

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2016
Grades 4-7 Though Cam's parents have put up with his gamer lifestyle for years, things change after his inattention to a simple request leads to burnt pasta, billowing smoke, and firemen axing their way through the front door. Responding to his parents' ultimatum that he take up a new interest, 13-year-old Cam starts the Positive Action Group, a fake middle-school club for good-deed doers. There's just one problem: when the club takes off despite his efforts to sabotage it, this champion slacker becomes the reluctant president of a wildly successful organization. After the funny opening chapter, in which Cam relates the oven-fire fiasco, the narration rotates among many characters. The technique works well, showing varied points of view without giving away secrets that will keep readers guessing for quite a while: Who is the mastermind continually undermining Cam's plans, and who is Cam's online nemesis, known as Evil McKillPeople? Korman makes comedy look deceptively easy in this page-turner of a chapter book, which features a strangely sympathetic character in a memorable predicament.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2016
Cameron's sole interest in life is video games. His understandably fed-up parents rescind his gaming privileges unless he chooses an extracurricular activity, leading him to invent a fake service club that, naturally, takes off and spirals out of Cameron's control. The fast pace, incident-rich plotting, and economically delineated relationships make this an entertaining, twisty read.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)