School Library Journal Review
| Gr 4--7--In this follow-up to Slacker, Cameron Boxer still just wants to play video games, and he thinks he's found the way to do it. If he can establish himself as a popular livestreamer with 50,000 subscribers, he can maintain his lifestyle. There are just a few problems: he has to keep his grades up or his parents will stop him from gaming; he's still president of his school's wildly popular Positive Action Group (P.A.G.), and those responsibilities really cut into gaming time; and right now, his stream has only eight followers. Cam inadvertently kills two birds with one stone. When he tells the P.A.G. members that he's stepping aside because of failing grades, enthusiastic Daphne takes on presidential duties and many supportive P.A.G. members start slipping Cam completed homework assignments on the sly. The problem of livestream followers is solved when Elvis the beaver proves to be an avid fan of gaming, and when he appears in Cam's stream, the feed blows up. Of course, if the P.A.G. learns that he's gaming rather than studying, and if Daphne discovers that he's removing Elvis from his habitat, it's not just the livestream that will blow up in Cam's face. This fast-paced, funny novel features short chapters from a variety of perspectives. Korman's humor and gaming references are on point, and reluctant readers will race through the book. Some may find the ending somewhat anticlimactic, but others will enjoy the irony. All will find that the story makes more sense if they have already read Slacker. VERDICT Purchase where the previous title is popular.--Misti Tidman, Mansfield/Richland County Public Library, OH |
Booklist Review
| As they did in Slacker (2016), unintended consequences again haunt video gamer Cam Boxer, whose online audience skyrockets after he acquires a suppressed version of Guardians of Geldorf at a library discard sale and a live, game-addicted beaver for a sidekick. Making time for the game not only requires hiding his obsession from his parents but also passing off the presidency of the wildly popular Positive Action Group (PAG), a community service club at school, with the fib that he's failing eighth grade. It's a ploy that brings an unexpected (but guiltily accepted) side benefit in the form of homework done by sympathetic paggers. Ultimately, his closest friends grow cheesed off, his health takes a serious turn for the worse, and all the deception comes home to roost in a big, public way when he's named class valedictorian. Korman uses multiple narrators to tell the tale, throws in plenty of comical antics, and pointedly ends Guardians of Geldorf not with a bang but an anticlimactic whimper. Oh well the scene-stealing beaver alone is worth the price of admission.--John Peters Copyright 2019 Booklist |
