Review by Ian Keogh

As is the case for all Lunch Lady books, The Summer Camp Shakedown opens with Lunch Lady showing what she can do, in this case using fish stick nunchucks. Here, though there’s a greater role for kids Dee, Hector and Terrence, first seen in the coach on the way to summer camp. They’re a little concerned about not being able to bring any electronic gadgets, and school bully Milmoe is also along, promising to make their lives miserable.

It’s a summer camp tradition to frighten kids with stories of something scary out in the woods, each new generation of camp counsellors embellishing the stories they were told when younger. Jarrett J. Krosoczka uses that as the basis of his story, starting with the faked monster and moving on to the possibility that there may be a real one.

This is Krosoczka’s Scooby Doo story. He introduces assorted camp staff near the start, telling readers one thing about each of them, and later defines the divisions between them. Could it be one of them has a motive to disguise themselves as a monster and cause chaos? Dee, Hector and Terrence have already proved themselves more than suited for the role of pesky kids. Because of everything else going on there’s not quite the same leading role for the Lunch Lady, and her activities are restricted by being away from her school headquarters.

It is the Lunch Lady who saves the day, but her smaller role means this isn’t quite the laughfest that The Author Visit Vendetta was. Both are packaged together as Lunch Lady 2 for 1 Special: The Second Helping. Lunch Lady and the Bake Sale Bandit is next, but the books can be read in any order.