BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lu,Marie. 2018.WARCROSS. Penguin. ISBN 9780399547980
2. PLOT SUMMARY
For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down Warcross players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty-hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. To make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.
Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
In Warcross, Lu is able to give us a fast pace story with action all throughout the storyline. We know that world building is an important part of fantasy, and Lu did just that, giving us a virtual world, where we are able to follow along the characters. We can see how hackers play a role in this story which is Emika, and we can see why she does this for a living which humanizes the aspect as to the why but is later hired by another person to use her skills for the greater good. Lu was able to give us a futuristic feel throughout the story, giving us a vivid experience of their world and the reality of Emikas life, it gives us an insight into the dangers that could potentially happen, even more now with how our world is vastly developing.
Overall, we get to see the virtual world, the scientific feel to and adventure throughout the whole story. Giving the readers an experience to escape reality, and go into another world just as if we were in the video with Emika.
4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews
A down-and-out teen, days from eviction, competes in the championships of the world's most popular virtual reality game.Emika Chen, 18, has been on her own for six years, living in poverty with a juvenile record, supporting herself by bounty hunting. She survives on ramen, with $13 and a debt of $3,450 to her name, and few joys: memories of her dead father, her crush on the world-famous 21-year-old inventor Hideo Tanaka, and her passion for Hideo's game, Warcross. Universally adored, Warcross is an immersive battle game with CGI-ready virtual combats. When Emi exploits a Warcross bug in a last-ditch attempt to make some cash, she glitches into the game. Suddenly, she's a media darling, and Hideo Tanaka himself summons her to Japan for a top-secret job. Whisked away on a private jet, Emi is flabbergasted by the perks of her new position—one of which is membership on one of the world's top pro teams. Emi (an American with an implied Chinese heritage) grows fond of her multiethnic team (with a wheelchair-using captain), but could one of them be a saboteur? Brief shoutouts to Lu's Legend series will intrigue ardent fans, though they don't seem to imply a connection between the worlds. A stellar cyberpunk series opener packed with simmering romance and cinematic thrills. (Science fiction. 13-adult)
School Library Journal Starred Review (8/1/17)
Gr 8 Up- highly engaging and incredibly exciting science fiction novel for young adults. Emika Chen is a bounty hunter living in a futuristic New York City. Emika has a juvenile record and spent time in the foster care system after her father died. She is struggling to pay her bills, and is banking on getting enough from the next bounty to settle up with her landlord. In the midst of her troubles, Emika gets involved in Warcross, a virtual reality video game played by nearly everyone. Players put on virtual reality glasses and can play others, build their own worlds, and keep memories there. There is a huge tournament where the best players from around the globe come together as teams to compete for the ultimate prize. When Emika tries stealing a valuable item in the opening ceremony, she glitches into the game and finds immediate fame. With this fame comes a job offer from the young Hideo Tanaka, creator of Warcross. He flies her to Japan on his private jet, and he asks for her help to find someone who is threatening the game. Emika is also a skilled hacker, so she accepts. The teen becomes a key player in the tournament and in Hideo's life, as they develop a romantic relationship. Readers will move effortlessly through Lu's fantastic writing, and they will enjoy getting to know this international cast of characters. The author adeptly weaves together exciting video games scenes, virtual reality, and romance. The great plot twist and cliff-hanger ending clearly leaves room for a sequel. VERDICT An enticing first purchase for YA collections, especially where Lu's other books and science fiction are popular.Nancy Jo Lambert, Reedy High School, Frisco, TX
Horn Book (4/1/18)
Emika Chen hacks into the phenomenally popular virtual-reality game Warcross. She's only the second person to do so, and its young inventor promises her an outrageous sum to locate the first hacker: shadowy villain Zero. Written in a first-person, present-tense style, Lu's (the Legend and Young Elites novels) latest is a blend of action, suspense, romance, and speculative fiction that will please her eager fans.
5. CONNECTIONS
Digital Citizenship: This would be a great book to talk about the safety of the use of the internet and how we can play a vital role in it!
World Building: Having students create their own video game would be a great extension of this book.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jones, Diana Wynne. 2002.THE OGRE DOWNSTAIRS. GreenwillowBooks. ISBN 0060298839
2. PLOT SUMMARY
When a disagreeable man with two boys marries a widow with three children, family adjustments are complicated by two magic chemistry sets which cause strange things to happen around the house.We can see a theme of blending families and just children must often adapt or try to adapt to a new situation. We can see that Jones is raw and authentically real while adding humor when she writes as the children's perspective and their developing story. As readers, there are some that can relate to the family structure and just how siblings can at times be eachothers rivals, but eventually come to terms to meeting in the middle for the greater good. We can also see how everyone viewed “the ogre” as someone who was harsh, or children may say “mean” which can be relevant to a lot of readers who take some time to get accustomed to new changes or roles of other people in their life. Overall, this book was a great and nostalgic read, it can get readers to reflect on times where adapting was a bit hard, and empathize with the characters in the book.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
In “The Ogre Downstairs”, Jones gives us a nostalgic feel with the storyline. This story reminds me and possibly other readers of supernatural movies such as Casper, or others such as a Peter Pan feel.
4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Kirkus Review
More Witch's Business (KR, 1974) out of phials with strange powers but here The Ogre is the new stepfather of Johnny, Caspar and Gwinny, a man with two children of his own whom they dislike almost as much as him. A child of each menage is given a chemistry set and the first powder, Vol. pulv., makes Gwinny rise like a blimp to the ceiling. Worse, much worse is to follow: there are toffee bars that scuttle, proliferate and eat everything in sight as well as droves of dust balls; finally Mummy disappears—more naturally—after a falling out with the Ogre but in the end he's put in Iris place and the families are realigned together. Once again the dialogue is nice and easy, nice and natural, and it's all lighter than air. April 30, 2012
5. CONNECTIONS
Adapting : Students can talk about adapting to new situations, or environments the children had to adapt to a new family structure.
Emotions/Empathy: Students can talk about their emotions, maybe some that came up while reading or throughout the character development of the characters in the book and having empathy for those going through changes.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ransom,Riggs. 2011.MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN. BooksOnTape. ISBN 9780307913012
2. PLOT SUMMARY
A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.
A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
While reading Riggs novel, we can see how even if considered fantasy, we can see the reality in it in which it can have the readers be able to empathize with our characters or even relate to it. As we go through the story we see Jacobs hardships with his mental health and what a toll this takes on for him in finding himself.
When thinking of how this book is set up to be read, we can see the story being split into chapters but we also get black and white images throughout the book so that we can see it all tie in together, with them being peculiar photographs. We know that the setting being an orphanage is a very important part in this story, being that Jacob had heard stories from his grandfather about it and how there were children with different abilities there, and that made Jacob curious about it. Riggs keeps this story interesting by then letting us find out that Jacob has some powers of his own, which in fantasy we know we need a hero, or we are able to see the good vs. evil aspect. Jacob knows he can be an ally to those in the orphanage. Although we know that this story is centered around or began with trauma we can see how Jacob is able to find himself, and his own strength in his own difference in which makes it a wonderful story.
4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
ALA Booklist (5/1/11)
On the brink of his sixteenth birthday, something terrible happens to Jacob, something so terrible that it splits his life into two parts: Before and After. Before, he was an ordinary young man with a peculiar but doting grandfather. After, he discovers he isn't so ordinary after all. Nor are the "peculiar children" he meets at Miss Peregrine's home. Riggs' debut uses the framework of a horror novel to tell a more far-reaching tale with symbolic overtones of the Holocaust. Though the author's skill does not always match his ambition s pacing is particularly uneven s premise is clever, and Jacob and the children are intriguing characters. The book is made even more intriguing by the inclusion of a number of period photographs that seem almost Victorian in character and that expand the oddness of the proceedings. An open ending suggests the possibility of a sequel.
Kirkus Reviews
Riggs spins a gothic tale of strangely gifted children and the monsters that pursue them from a set of eerie, old trick photographs. The brutal murder of his grandfather and a glimpse of a man with a mouth full of tentacles prompts months of nightmares and psychotherapy for 15-year-old Jacob, followed by a visit to a remote Welsh island where, his grandfather had always claimed, there lived children who could fly, lift boulders and display like weird abilities. The stories turn out to be true—but Jacob discovers that he has unwittingly exposed the sheltered "peculiar spirits" (of which he turns out to be one) and their werefalcon protector to a murderous hollowgast and its shape-changing servant wight. The interspersed photographs—gathered at flea markets and from collectors—nearly all seem to have been created in the late 19th or early 20th centuries and generally feature stone-faced figures, mostly children, in inscrutable costumes and situations. They are seen floating in the air, posing with a disreputable-looking Santa, covered in bees, dressed in rags and kneeling on a bomb, among other surreal images. Though Jacob's overdeveloped back story gives the tale a slow start, the pictures add an eldritch element from the early going, and along with creepy bad guys, the author tucks in suspenseful chases and splashes of gore as he goes. He also whirls a major storm, flying bullets and a time loop into a wild climax that leaves Jacob poised for the sequel. A trilogy opener both rich and strange, if heavy at the front end. (Horror/fantasy. 12-14)
School Library Journal
Gr 8 Up-Sixteen-year-old Jacob, traumatized by his grandfather's sudden, violent death, travels with his father to a remote island off the coast of Wales to find the orphanage where his grandfather was sent to live to escape Nazi persecution in Poland. When he arrives, he finds much more than he bargained for: the children from his grandfather's stories are still at the orphanage, living in a time loop in 1940. The monsters that killed Jacob's grandfather are hunting for "peculiar" children, those with special talents, and the group at the orphanage is in danger. Jacob must face the possibility that he, too, has certain traits that the monsters are after and that he is being stalked by adults he trusted. This complex and suspenseful story incorporates eerie photographs of children with seemingly impossible attributes and abilities, many of whom appear as characters in the story. The mysterious photographs add to the bizarre and slightly creepy tone of the book. Jacob is a strong and believable character, though only a few of the secondary characters are fully realized. The pacing of the story is good, alternating action sequences with Jacob's discoveries of his grandfather's long-hidden secrets. Readers will find this book unique and intriguing. Misti Tidman, formerly at Boyd County Public Library, Ashland, KY
5. CONNECTIONS
Being different: This book can lead to discussions about how being different, having different abilities or needs and how we can embrace our differences.
Mental Health: Being that Jacob deals with mental health issues, and how he sees a psychiatrist this can open conversations about mental health and how we can get help, and erase some of the stigma surrounding it.
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