By Alp Turgut
‘’Slacker’’ by Gordon Korman is about Cameron Boxer, a video gamer who is also a slacker. After not remembering to take the zucchini out of the oven and therefore almost burning his house down, Cameron’s parents want him to be more active and do something else other than play video games. This results in him starting a volunteer club at his school. He assumes nobody will join, but the counselor gets interested in the club and soon there are many members. However, they anger the high school’s own volunteer club, the Friends of Fuzzy. A feud starts between the two clubs, and after some time Cameron’s club is closed down. The plot continues with many twists and turns and a very satisfying conclusion.
This book is very interesting because it accurately describes the social dynamics of middle school and incorporates many unique ideas such as a battle of community service clubs.One would expect that an adult would have a harder time describing middle school, however Mr. Korman has done it very successfully. The book is also very educational. It shows us that we need friendship and compassion to get through hard times.
I recommend this book because it is short and very entertaining. You can read it whenever you are bored, and revisit the the times when you were a middle schooler.
If you like this book then you might check out other books by Mr. Korman such as “This Can’t Be Happening in MacDonald Hall” which he wrote when he was 12 years old, or his other famous book “Swindle.”