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A review by spiffysarahruby
Level Up by Gene Luen Yang
4.0
Still on the lookout for a good graphic novel to have as a future book club selection for the adult literacy office I work for, and having enjoyed “The Eternal Smile” by the same author, I wanted to look at “Level Up.” Man, I have a hard decision to make!
I really liked the premise of this book, a boy named Dennis who is “destined” to be a G.I. doctor, but falls off the path by becoming addicted to video games. Spurred back on the path by 4 cute/scary looking little angels, something still doesn’t feel quite right...
My one concern about using this for the adult literacy book club is that perhaps they might not relate to Dennis’s love of video games, however I don’t feel too nervous about that, since you don’t need to be a gamer to understand the references (lots of Pac-Man and the mention of a few game systems like Nintendo, so nothing really new, not a lot of info to be confused about). On the other hand, I do think they would really relate to Dennis’s struggle of finding where he belongs in the world, and the fight that everyone seems to face with a perceived destiny and the choices that could alter that destiny. I also like the notion of how Dennis finds a way to reconcile his sweet, sweet gamer skills with being a G.I. doctor, and that could be an encouraging message to our adult learners—find your passion and make the best of it.
This was a very fun read and I think our learners would enjoy it.
***
So far the competition for this book is “Tales from Outer Suburbia” by Shaun Tan. It’s beautiful and completely imaginative, but I think the students would be able to relate to “Level Up” better. “Tales…” would be challenge to stretch their imaginations and while I love that… don’t know quite how the learners would feel. *shrug* I’m just started “Our Cancer Year” by Harvey Pekar for a non-fiction option. We shall see…
I really liked the premise of this book, a boy named Dennis who is “destined” to be a G.I. doctor, but falls off the path by becoming addicted to video games. Spurred back on the path by 4 cute/scary looking little angels, something still doesn’t feel quite right...
My one concern about using this for the adult literacy book club is that perhaps they might not relate to Dennis’s love of video games, however I don’t feel too nervous about that, since you don’t need to be a gamer to understand the references (lots of Pac-Man and the mention of a few game systems like Nintendo, so nothing really new, not a lot of info to be confused about). On the other hand, I do think they would really relate to Dennis’s struggle of finding where he belongs in the world, and the fight that everyone seems to face with a perceived destiny and the choices that could alter that destiny. I also like the notion of how Dennis finds a way to reconcile his sweet, sweet gamer skills with being a G.I. doctor, and that could be an encouraging message to our adult learners—find your passion and make the best of it.
This was a very fun read and I think our learners would enjoy it.
***
So far the competition for this book is “Tales from Outer Suburbia” by Shaun Tan. It’s beautiful and completely imaginative, but I think the students would be able to relate to “Level Up” better. “Tales…” would be challenge to stretch their imaginations and while I love that… don’t know quite how the learners would feel. *shrug* I’m just started “Our Cancer Year” by Harvey Pekar for a non-fiction option. We shall see…