Anda is a teen girl who enjoys playing video games. From the
opening scenes, we can see that she is part of a loving family but is feeling a
bit isolated, having recently moved to a new city. A speaker comes to Anda’s
school to talk to the teen girls about online gaming. Girls are seriously
under-represented in the world of online games, and the speaker entices the
girls in Anda’s class to join a popular online game called Coarsegold and even
join her “guild,” a team within the game.
Anda is interested in giving Coarsegold a try, but first she
has to convince her parents that it’s safe and will be good for her to be a
part of a team. They agree, and Anda is pulled into the exciting game, thrilled
to be part of the guild, and loving her new kick-ass avatar. It’s all fun, until Anda learns that
some of the much-maligned “gold farmers” in the game are actually kids from
around the world, earning money so their families can eat. All of a sudden, the
game is more than just a game to Anda, and she tries to find a way to help a
newfound friend on the other side of the world.
This novel works on several levels. It’s an interesting and
engaging story of a teen girl who gains confidence and grows through her love
of video games. But this book also tackles some important real-life issues: the
lack of girls and female role models in the online gaming world and the
economic and political issues of gold farming (where players participate in a
game only so they can sell things on the black market). Not being a teen or a
gamer, I’d never even heard of gold farming before, but this novel provided a
good introduction, and the authors included more details in an introduction.
All in all, In Real Life is a compelling story with a likable main character who uses her
compassion and intelligence to resolve a problem. Along the way, she improves
her self-esteem, makes new friends, and has a lot of fun, too! The
illustrations were fun to look at, with the story going back and forth between
Anda’s real-world life and her experiences within the game (click here to see some sample pages). I can’t wait to
read more YA graphic novels!
175 pages, First Second
I personally really liked this book. Especially how the characters were drawn. However, when I tired to look up how the illustrator drew them I couldn`t find anything about it. I tried doing it my self, but it just looked wrong.
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