EleMental

July 1, 2012
Grades 5-8 Willis owns a Plush DVP console, the latest advance in deep virtual player gaming in 2050. He strikes up a friendship with Zeb Redman, a hardcore gamer whose talent is only hampered by his lack of a decent console. They start playing a game called Elemental, which is not so much addictive as it is absorbing. Literally. After a few intense sessions, Zeb disappears, and Willis fears that he is lost in a world called Virtualitee. With the help of a girl named Arizona, Willis tries to save Zeb without getting lost himself. There is a backstory involving Zeb and Arizona, and there are questions about Zeb's parentage, which cause him to avoid reality and lose himself in gaming. While useful in shaping characterization, these details bring an element of moralizing which seems unnecessary, since it is the game itself which is at fault, not the children playing it. Still, the author does an excellent job of creating Virtualitee, and by the end readers might feel as if they have had a lucky escape from its clutches, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)