106 pages • 3 hours read
Gordon KormanSlacker
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 1-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Cameron Boxer”
Cameron Boxer is a 13-year-old highly dedicated gamer. He’s carefully designed his basement to be conducive to his gaming. He’s playing a game in which he fights aliens, and he, along with his teammates Chuck, Pavel, and an online friend named Borje, are locked in an epic battle.
When Cameron’s mom tells him to remove the ziti from the oven in 10 minutes, Cameron agrees without actually listening to her. He is locked in battle with his nemesis, a fellow gamer who goes only by their gamer tag, Evil McKillPeople. Evil McKillPeople has followed and harassed Cameron, Chuck, Pavel, and Borje through multiple games, and Cameron is determined to beat Evil once and for all.
As the battle heats up, Cameron realizes the local fire department is outside. The firefighters break down the front door and storm the basement to rescue Cameron. Cam realizes it’s been about an hour since his mom asked him to remove the ziti. The house did not fully ignite, but the black smoke tarred every wall, ceiling, and surface.
Because of the front door’s abnormal dimensions, it will take a month to get a replacement. Cameron’s parents warn him that he needs to get involved in something besides video games. Cameron believes his dedication to his games is an accomplishment. He is training for Rule the World, a competition with a $10,000 prize. However, his parents threaten to take Cam’s gaming console from him if he doesn’t find another hobby before the front door is replaced.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Pavel Dysan”
Pavel Dysan is Cameron’s friend and gaming buddy. Pavel hopes Cam will choose him as his partner for Rule the World. Pavel believes Cam’s slacker tendencies are a sign of Cam’s genius, as Cam has gone to great lengths to protect his lifestyle. He understands why Cameron’s parents are upset about the ziti incident, but he thinks Cam is capable of accomplishing exactly what he wants, which is nothing.
After school, Pavel, Cam, and Chuck go to the candy store. It is one of the few remaining businesses on Main Street after the new mall opened. The boys eat gummy worms and talk about a plan for Cam. Outside the store, a group of high schoolers run a car wash to raise funds for spleen health. They’re part of a community service club called Friends of Fuzzy. Cam gets the idea to start a similar club for his middle school.
At Pavel’s house, Pavel sets up an official page on the school website for the club, which they’ve decided to call the Positive Action Group. Cam’s plan is to present the page when his parents ask about his activities. He doesn’t plan to do anything for the club or even hold meetings. He just wants to make it look like he’s involved. On the website, they add a link to contact Cameron, but it leads them to a page under construction. Pavel believes this is Cam’s greatest work yet.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Daphne Leibowitz”
Daphne is an eighth-grader at Cam’s school. She’s disillusioned by the consumerism that is destroying the town and the self-important clubs that focus on personal achievement. Daphne worries about the fate of an elderly beaver she’s named Elvis. Elvis was left behind by his colony when the mall destroyed their habitat. Elvis has become a nuisance around town, chewing on fences, trees, and cables.
While browsing the school website, Daphne finds the page for the Positive Action Group. Daphne believes this is exactly what the school and town need. She is surprised to learn Cameron Boxer is the president. She knows Cameron is a slacker but hopes that he has changed his ways. She tries the contact link on the website so she can join the club but finds the broken page. She decides to go to Cam’s house.
When she arrives, she attempts to knock on the plywood replacement door, but no one answers. She hears sounds coming from the basement, so she peeks through the high window, where she can see Cam gaming. She knocks on the window and calls his name.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Cameron Boxer”
Cameron sits in the basement, gaming online with Pavel and Chuck. Evil McKillPeople shows up and locks the boys in battle. Cam hears the banging on the window, but he’s determined to stay in the game and take down Evil. Chuck suggests Cam go see who it is now since they need a few minutes to regroup anyway. Cam goes upstairs and outside to find Daphne. Despite being in school together since kindergarten, Cam doesn’t really know anything about Daphne.
Daphne tells Cam that they have work to do for the Positive Action Group. Cam is surprised anyone found the page. He’s shown it to his parents, who are both proud of him, but otherwise he’s ignored the whole thing. Daphne praises Cam for coming up with the organization. She tells Cam she has an idea for the club’s first big project once her membership goes through. Cam is distraught. It never occurred to him what would happen if someone took the club seriously. He tries to tell Daphne that there is a membership freeze while they sort out the club, but Daphne lists the school policy about club memberships and threatens to report Cam if he tries to keep her out.
Daphne tells Cam about Elvis and her plan to build him a new habitat. Cam doesn’t want to have any part in this, but he tells Daphne that she can bring it up at the next meeting. Daphne gives him her phone number before leaving, but Cam throws it away once she’s gone.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Mr. Fanshaw”
Mr. Fanshaw is the guidance counselor at the middle school. He is stressed because the school is holding a raffle for a large television, but they have not sold many tickets. The town is having economic problems, with many family businesses struggling since the mall opened.
Daphne enters Mr. Fanshaw’s office. Daphne explains that she’s joined a new club on campus but is frustrated that they haven’t done anything yet. Daphne wants Mr. Fanshaw to help the club get off the ground. Mr. Fanshaw looks at the webpage for the club. He’s never heard of it, and he’s also never heard of Cameron Boxer, which Mr. Fanshaw finds strange since Cameron has been at the school for over two years now. Mr. Fanshaw is nonetheless impressed that someone at the school founded a group devoted to positive action, and he promises Daphne he’ll help get the P.A.G. on track.
Mr. Fanshaw continues to dig into Cameron Boxer’s file and finds that the student has no extracurriculars or activities whatsoever. Mr. Fanshaw is conflicted because it seems like Cameron is a slacker, but a slacker would never start such an important organization. Mr. Fanshaw becomes eager to meet with Cameron and help grow the P.A.G. He also thinks the club could help sell raffle tickets.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Cameron Boxer”
Cameron leaves class to go play phone games in the boys’ room. The rest of the stalls are occupied, so Cam stands by the sink and begins his game. He hears the sounds from the game come from several other phones and deduces that Chuck and Pavel are in the stalls as well as several other classmates.
Before he can get too far into his game, he hears Mr. Fanshaw call his name from outside the restroom. He panics and crawls under the stall door for the handicap stall, where another boy, Eric, is gaming. When Mr. Fanshaw enters the bathroom, Cam casually strolls out of the stall and washes his hands so he won’t get caught gaming. Mr. Fanshaw promises not to tell Cam’s teachers that he had his phone out. Cam is uneasy at how excited Mr. Fanshaw seems.
Mr. Fanshaw explains that Cam’s new club needs approval from the guidance department but assures him not to worry because Mr. Fanshaw will personally be taking the role of faculty adviser for the P.A.G. Cam is frustrated that Daphne involved the guidance counselor. Cam tries to wiggle out of it by explaining that things are so new and they’re still getting organized, but that’s what Mr. Fanshaw wants to help with. He suggests Cam meet Daphne in the art room after school that day to make a sign-up sheet and posters. Cam agrees but has no intention of following through. At the end of the day, he intends to sprint out of the school before anyone can stop him. He begins to worry that the P.A.G. is becoming a real threat to his lifestyle.
Chapters 1-6 Analysis
The first six chapters of Slacker establish the format of the book, introduce Cam as a protagonist, and show the origins of the P.A.G. These chapters also begin developing central themes like The Importance of Community and Cooperation Versus Competition.
The format of Slacker approaches the narrative by shifting perspectives each chapter. Chapter 1 is told from the first-person point of view of the protagonist, Cameron Boxer, and introduces his primary conflict: Cameron must get involved in school activities if he wants to keep access to his gaming console. Through Cameron’s perspective, his personality is shown to be dedicated to the preservation of his gamer lifestyle to the point of blocking windows with couch cushions and ignoring instructions from his mother.
Cameron lives by advice he once heard on television, “find what you love to do, and do it” (8). Cam has “lived by that rule for every one of [his] thirteen years” (8). He doesn’t see the value in being well-rounded, as long as he enjoys his time. All he wants to do is play video games, and he works just hard enough at everything else in his life to ensure nothing can interfere with this passion of his. When the perspective shifts to Cam’s close friend Pavel in the second chapter, it becomes clear that Cam’s not necessarily lazy but rather “a slacker [in the same] way LeBron James was a basketball player—through a mixture of rare natural gift and intense practice” (14).
The perspective shifts each chapter also establish several other key characters and their roles in the Positive Action Group. Chapter 2 focuses on Pavel Dysan, who helps to legitimize the P.A.G. by hacking the school website and creating a page for the fake club. Pavel expresses that “[c]omputers were another one of my talents” and boasts that he’d “first hacked into the school’s website before lunch on day one of sixth grade” (17). Pavel’s contribution both allows Cam a front for his fake involvement in school activities and sets off a series of events that leads to the legitimization of the club as an official school organization, with both of these results working in conflict with one another.
When the perspective shifts to Daphne Leibowitz in Chapter 3, the Positive Action Group begins to grow from its insincere roots. Daphne describes herself as “kind of a complainer” (24). She feels that “Nobody cared—not about a poor homeless beaver, not about anything” (23). She’s upset at the state of the town and the self-centered nature of all the clubs offered by the school. However, Daphne becomes hopeful when she discovers the P.A.G. club webpage. Daphne is motivated by her love for an elderly beaver, Elvis, who has been displaced by the new mall in town.
Daphne is the first one to make efforts to bring the P.A.G. together, but she gets nowhere with Cam, causing her to enlist the help of guidance counselor Mr. Fanshaw. Mr. Fanshaw is the only one with the power and perseverance to pursue Cam and pressure him to push forward as president of the P.A.G. When Mr. Fanshaw learns of the P.A.G., he is impressed that “a community-minded student leader like this boy” (41) managed to escape Mr. Fanshaw’s attention. There is irony in that Mr. Fanshaw sees only good intentions in Cameron Boxer despite the chapter’s mounting evidence that Cam wants nothing to do with the P.A.G.
The theme of The Importance of Community is introduced in Chapter 3, when Daphne Leibowitz describes the state of the town. She explains “We all stood around, pretending everything was fine while the mall sucked all the business away from Main Street” (23). She continues, clarifying that “We were the customers abandoning our own town and driving to the mall to do our shopping” (23). This rant also introduces the overarching conflict that the town as a whole faces: “[T]he Transportation Department was planning to demolish Sycamore’s crumbling interstate exit” (23). The town’s freeway exit becomes a motif to communicate The Importance of Community as the novel unfolds.
Another theme introduced in these chapters is Cooperation Versus Competition. In Chapter 1, it is revealed that Cam and his friends are training for Rule the World, a gaming competition with a cash prize. The benefits of cooperation are shown in the way that Cam and his core gaming group, Chuck, Pavel, and Dorje, work together to train for the competition. Cam justifies his dedication to gaming by reminding his parents that he could make money if he’s good enough. However, this seemingly healthy interest in competition is contrasted by Cam’s relationship with his rival, Evil McKillPeople. Cam explains:
The gamer with the Darth Vader voice synthesizer had been stalking me online for months, foiling my Normandy invasions, sacking my quarterbacks, forcing my chariots out of the Circus Maximus, and battering me with steel chairs in extreme wrestling matches (3).
Cam is so obsessed with defeating Evil McKillPeople that he allows the ziti in the oven to nearly burn down the house. These contrasting attitudes Cam holds toward gaming introduce the concept of Cooperation Versus Competition, which develops as the novel progresses.
The replacement door, which happens to be a piece of plywood, comes to symbolize Cam’s struggles with the P.A.G. The plywood covering the doorway is an inconvenience for Cam because he must walk around the back of the house to enter and exit as well as check who is knocking. Similarly, the P.A.G. quickly becomes an inconvenience for Cam as he must start dodging the attempts by Daphne and Mr. Fanshaw to get the P.A.G. up and running.
As a whole, these first six chapters establish key players in the P.A.G., introduce important themes and conflicts, and develop symbols, motifs, and formatting that persist throughout the book.
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