A summer camp for aspiring activists? Gregor Maravilla's there. He's been committed to his Feed the Children campaign ever since he met his hero, philanthropist Robert Drill, the founder of Camp Save the World. At first, camp is everything that Gregor hoped. Sure, there's a few dud campaigns: Men's Rights is represented by a weirdly charismatic dude who spends all his time overexplaining things, and the famous actress Ashley Woodstone, who's a camper for some reason, has an Eat Dirt campaign that's exactly what it sounds like. Then the activism competition is announced, and suddenly it's full-on warfare. Gregor sucks at winning points, and worse, he keeps having run-ins with Ashley! Who's so weird and annoying! Right?! Moldavsky (Kill the Boy Band, 2016) offers up another madcap, totally wacky satire, with characters that are more caricature than meat. Despite all his good intentions, Gregor worries that he may sometimes be part of the problems he's trying to combat, and hilarious as his struggles are, they're also a valuable baseline for any real-life aspiring activist.

Teenage activism goes absurdist in this summer-camp novel.When he met his hero Robert Drill, a Mark Zuckerberg-esque figure, then-13-year-old Gregor was inspired by Drill's words: "You could feed the children of the world someday." Now 16, when he finds out Drill is sponsoring a summer camp for teen activists, he leaps at the chance to attend—even if the presence of white teen movie star Ashley Woodstone doesn't really fit with Gregor's idea of Camp Save the World. Among the campers, most of them belittlingly called by their causes instead of their names, Gregor tries to become a better activist. It's hard, though: Men's Rights keeps throwing money at Gregor for his campaign and calling him white, even though Gregor is half-Mexican. The girl Gregor likes seems too cool for him and possibly gay. And worst of all, Ashley is just…everywhere. Yet as Gregor becomes friends with Ashley, looking beyond her kooky Eat Dirt campaign, he discovers a girl who could become more than his friend. Will he mess it all up, though, as the campers become caught up in a competition to win an internship with Drill and Gregor learns more about his hero? Aiming barbs at the seemingly infinite array of causes among today's social justice warriors, Moldavsky's satire is both funny and foulmouthed, but the broadly painted characters and not-nearly-wacky-enough plot keep it earthbound. A comedy that is more mousy brown than black. (Fiction. 14-16)

Moldavsky (Kill the Boy Band) delivers an over-the-top farce set at a summer camp for teenage activists. Sixteen-year-old narrator Gregor Maravilla, an avid Superman fan, and teen movie star Ashley Woodstone are among the campers who find themselves competing over the chance to win an internship with tech billionaire, humanitarian, and camp founder Robert Drill, sabotaging each other and not acting at all like young do-gooders. Moldavsky dials every aspect of the story up to 11, including the causes that the various campers campaign for: Ashley-s is -Eat Dirt- (it isn-t metaphorical), and Gregor starts referring to the other attendees by their passion projects as a prank war heats up (-Water Conservation cut off the water to the girls- showers. Abstinence and Sex Positivity had been locked in the sports shed together-). Ostensibly, it-s all in service of exploring what happens when good intentions and conscientiousness collide with the selfish side of human nature, but without much depth to the characters or storyline, the effect is that of a single joke that goes on too long. Ages 14-up. Agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency. (May)

Gregor wants to “do good,” to make a difference, to have a positive impact, so when he is chosen to attend Camp Save the World, he figures he will fit right in. Since every teen at the camp is there for a charitable reason, Gregor believes the campers will be united in their altruistic efforts. That is where Gregor finds that he is wrong. While Gregor’s cause is feeding children, others have strange causes, like eating dirt or protesting saving others. To complicate matters, the owner of the camp announces a competition with an internship as a prize. This makes even the most altruistic teen advocate become fanatical about winning—for self interests—and pits the campers against each other as they compete to gain the most attention for their causes. Along the way Gregor meets and develops a fascination for the camp golden girl, Ashley, a Hollywood starlet and leader of the Eat Dirt campaign. Initially, he is repelled by her and her hold over people, but as the time at camp progresses, Gregor learns that there is much more depth to Ashley than he realized The novel is funny and balanced; Moldavsky manages to make fun of the extremes social justice warrior movement while also pointing out the value and necessity of teen advocacy. This will appeal to teen readers who enjoy parodies such as Moldavsky’s Kill the Boy Band (Scholastic, 2016/VOYA February 2016) and campy camp stories.—Charla Hollingsworth.