Level 13

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.