Gamerville

Christmas, Johnnie. Gamerville
July 16, 2024 by HarperAlley
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

In this graphic novel, we meet Max, whose loves video games. His favorite is Lone Wolf of Calamity Bay, and he's dedicated himself to the game, playing through the night, and has made the semifinals of the Gamerville Tournament. His parents are concerned, and his mother, who is overprotective after homeschooling him for years, thinks he needs to be outside more. Max doesn't have many friends at school, but when fellow gaming club members Rosa and Armand find out that he's made the semifinals, they offer to coach him. Another student at the school, Wilder, is the reigning champ of the game, and constantly gives Max a hard time for being geeky. Once he makes the finals, Max rebrands his look at "Max Lightning" and makes plans to attend the tournament. Sadly, his parents put an end to his aspirations by making him attend Camp Reset to get him away from the adverse effects of screens. They don't care in the least that he's made the tournament. At the camp, he meets Dylan, who has a past and few friends, and Zanzi, whose great-great-grandfather started the camp. There are lots of old traditions, like uniforms, a Toy Tower, and a talent show, which Zanzi wants to uphold. There's even a tortoise, Major, who has been at the camp for 100 years! When Zanzi's friends want to embrace some new ideas, like doing a Tip Top dance at the talent show instead of reenacting Peter Pan, she's upset, and this is exacerbated when her older brother Byron tells her about plans he has to update the facilities. Meanwhile, Max has figured out that the Gamerville tournament is being help on the other side of the lake, and he has a week to figure out how to make his escape. When Dylan introduces him to RPGs that aren't online, Max makes a campaign strategy to get across the lake, and starts to secretly gain skills and enlist help. When Dylan's nemesis, Ari, is appointed keeper of the Toy Tower, Dylan is upset, and convinces Max to help him get into the Tower, since Max needs to confirm his entry in the Gamerville Tournament, something he can only do if he retrieves his Game Guy device that is locked in the Tower. Zanzi's friends have abandoned her, and when Major dies, she is distraught. Dylan and Max find a way into the tower through long abandoned mines, which they discovered when Max passed out from dehydration (which is an ongoing problem for him) and fell into a cave, surviving because he landed on an old mattress. Having made contact with Rosa, Max is able to get to Gamerville when Rosa and Armand come to get him in a boat. Zanzi is angry that Max is leaving, but agrees to go with the group to watch Max compete. The camp, alarmed that Max has run away, alerts Max's parents, who go to Gamerville, knowing that's where their son has gone. They allow Max to compete. In the game, Max realizes for the first time that the NPCs in Calamity Bay need to be rescued more than he needs to get the various treasures, because of something Rosa has said. Wilder thinks he has won the game, but will the judge of the game weigh Max's accomplishment of saving citizens against Wilder's larger amount of treasure? 

Strengths: Any book that involves children obsessed with video games has a built in audience of the millions of children obsessed with video games. Often, these children are also big graphic novel fans, so this is perfect. The fact that Max gets into a gaming tournament is pure wish fulfillment, even though he is thwarted by his evil parents who want him to do a screen detox. There are good messages in this about controlling anger, making friends, and even exploring the outdoors, so a lot of thought went into this story. The drawings have lots of details, and do a great job of depicting both the camp and the Calamity Bay settings. Bonus points for the history of the camp and a long lived tortoise, although Major's death was sad. 
Weaknesses: The timeline of Max getting in to the camp was forced, even though the mother claims she had to call in a lot of favors to get him in, and the fact that it was located so close to the Gamerville location was overly coincindental. Will young readers who like video games care? No. They will just vibrate to Max's early assertion that "When I grow up, I'll play video games whenever I want." Also, I needed to know more about why Max was prone to dehydration dizziness.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who liked Hansen's My Video Game Ate My Homework or Ali-A's Adventures: Game On graphic novels. I much preferred this author's Swim Team, but but reading about video games is at least better than having children PLAY video games. I'll never be a fan and think that the American Academy of Pediatrics limits of no more than 60 minutes on school days and 2 hours on non-school days are excessive. Children only have about five hours a day of time after school. Half and hour a day seems like more than enough time to spend on screens. (Remember, I was raised in that tiny generational bubble when screen time was seen to be evil for children, as depicted in Brown's excellent The He-Man Effect.