From the Publisher
Praise for Swindle:"Scary, funny, and hysterical adventures!" — Chicago Tribune"Pure fun from top to bottom." — School Library JournalPraise for The Hypnotists:"Fast-paced... an entertaining mix of intense action and goofy fun." — Publishers WeeklyPraise for Ungifted:"A gem for readers looking for a book where the underdog comes out on top." — Voice of Youth Advocates"Funny and insightful." — Publishers WeeklyPraise for Schooled:* "This rewarding novel features an engaging main character and some memorable moments of comedy, tenderness, and reflection." — Booklist, starred review
School Library Journal
06/01/2019
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
Kirkus Reviews
2019-03-03
Can Cam hit 50,000 subscribers on his game stream? Not with distractions like schoolwork.
In Slacker (2016), Cam Boxer tried to perpetuate his video game "lifestyle" by starting a fake do-gooder club at school; then everyone joined the Positive Action Group. Now it's so successful (and the eighth-grader is such a hero) that he has no time to game. He and his best friends, Chuck and Pavel, devise a scheme to convince the student body that Cam is failing and needs to study instead of running the P.A.G. This works, and Cam's stream takes off, especially after Cam starts playing a rare, early-release copy of "Guardians of Geldorf." But then his classmates, worried about their hero, start offering homework help; a mysterious stalker comes to town; and Chuck's budding relationship with P.A.G. second-in-command Daphne threatens both the game streaming and the three boys' friendship. This sequel, narrated, as before, by the threesome and a few others by turns, is more of the same. Cam is no more likable, as he lies and cheats his way to unearned success. Nothing here is actually believable—a Zorro mask would not hide Cam's identity—and a twist about questionable content in the game's early release is profoundly unexciting. As before, the cast defaults to white, with diversity largely cued via naming convention.
Fans of Korman's school stories and caper novels may find this fluff just fun enough. (Fiction. 7-11)
