Independent Reading Level: Grade 3-7

Cameron's whole life revolves around video games. After he almost burns his house down, his parents insist he do an extracurricular activity or they'll take away his video games. Cameron and his friends invent a fake club to get his parents off his back. However, other students hear about the club and sign up for it. Before he knows it, the club is involved in so many volunteer events that it'll take all of his abilities at slacking off to avoid the club and play video games. ( )

When did Gordon Korman get so boring? No, I mean it. His Macdonald Hall series was amazing, I Want to Go Home was fantastic, but this book feels like it's trying too hard. The characters feel like cardboard cutouts. None of them are relatable and Cam's turnaround feels like too little too late. I understand the formula Korman was going for - it's the one he's used in a lot of his books lately, but it didn't work. It was like watching a little kid make a peanut butter sandwich - they understand what they should be doing and they're following the rules exactly but for some reason it doesn't taste right and causes a lot of extra mess.

It wasn't a horrible book, but it wasn't one I would recommend to anyone anytime soon. My advice would be to stick with Korman's old stuff because that's where his talent really shines. ( )

Classic Korman, as funny as the books we read, reread, and loved in the 80s. Cameron Boxer, the "slacker" of the title, is similar to other Korman (anti)heroes like Rudy of I Want To Go Home, focussed on his own life and values and unwilling to expend any unnecessary effort to placate the adult world, yet basically decent at heart... somewhere deep down... if he'd just stop trying to game the system. A really fun read.

8th grader Cam Boxer has ambition- to win the Rule the World video game tournament; anything else is interference for his lifestyle. When he disregards his mother's instructions and the house almost burns down while he's playing, the law is laid down for Cam to get another activity. He and his creative friends come up with the perfect plan to make a fictitious service club and have Cam be the president. Little did they realize the club would actually take off and within the first couple days they'd have kids wanting to join and a faculty member- Mr. Fanshaw backing the group. Between the plans to save a homeless beaver and the wrath of a high school cheerleader who sees Cam as her biggest rival, Cam finds not having a real group is a lot of hard work. This 132 page book is excellent for the reluctant reader and any other middle school student who enjoys a fun story. ( )