THE QUEST FOR THE GOLDEN PLUNGER

Hijinks ensue at summer camp when teenagers compete for a coveted prize in this humorous YA novel.

Over the last two years, narrator Do-Over and his pals Uncle Ruckus and Turbo Cakes have forged a close friendship at Camp Winnebago, their Adventure Ranger summer camp. Now, in June 2015, the 15-year-olds are expecting a great time as they arrive to join the rest of Troop 99. Every Troop hopes to win the Golden Plunger; it’s always been a symbolic achievement, but this year, a real prize is attached. Good behavior is essential to win, which is a challenge for the screw-up prone Troop 99. Turbo and Uncle Ruckus get into several kinds of serious trouble almost immediately and are blamed for the return of the Wafflestomper, notorious in past summers for clogging the showers with excrement. Still, the friends manage to show a new and utterly clueless camper the ropes while plotting the downfall of militaristic Troop 100 and pursuing schemes like Uncle Ruckus’ moneymaking plan (involving chocolate laxatives and a hoard of premium toilet paper). If Troop 99 can win the Golden Plunger, maybe this will be, as Do-Over hopes, the best summer of their lives. In his debut novel, Dickert nails that particular summer-camp combination of earnestness and anarchy. Hilarious scenes include a painful video where a young Ranger urges: “Let’s keep our souls and showers clean! Take the masturbation abstinence pledge today, and sign the Can’t Come at Camp Contract!” Beyond the humor, the novel also explores characters’ backgrounds in third-person flashbacks that explain their nicknames and sensitively illuminate their personalities, conflicts, and hopes for the future. Do-Over, for example, feels ignored by his sickly parents and has anger-management problems he constantly struggles to control.

A laugh-out-loud comic novel that’s also psychologically astute about the inner lives of teenage boys.