Insert Coin to Continue by John David Anderson
2016; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 69; Issue: 11 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.2016.0604
ISSN1558-6766
Autores Tópico(s)Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies
ResumoReviewed by: Insert Coin to Continue by John David Anderson Alaine Martaus Anderson, John David Insert Coin to Continue. Aladdin, 2016 [336p] ISBN 978-1-4814-4704-1 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-7 Twelve-year-old Bryan Biggins usually uses video games to escape the misery of middle school. Now, though, middle school has magically morphed into a video game, complete with a mysterious coin slot that needs to be filled when he takes too many hit points. Bryan must conquer a series of quests: battling enemy combatants (a gang of jocks in dodgeball), tracking a monster through the dungeon (a mouse in the boiler room), saving the world (a globe-shaped class project), and taking down the big boss (the school’s biggest bully) to get to the prize: a chance to win the girl of his dreams. This enjoyable adventure with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments wins because it never takes itself too seriously. Reveling instead in its own oddly relatable premise, the novel offers readers an awkward nerd-turned-hero who learns lessons in real-world courage and self-confidence, while the story itself avoids the pitfalls of anti-gaming didacticism. The video game challenges are well crafted, and they reference a diverse list of unnamed games from Tetris to Frogger to Rock Band to Mortal Kombat, giving knowledgeable readers a chance to play guess-that-allusion. The overall quirky tone and set-up make for a likely success among readers who want a gamer hero and with retro-loving gamer-readers who aren’t quite ready for Cline’s Ready Player One. [End Page 563] Copyright © 2016 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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