Saturday Morning Cartoons- Game On

Grace, Sina. Game On (All-American Persian #1)

October 6, 2026 by Random House Graphic

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
 

Sasan Rad is in 7th grade in West LA and is obsessed with video games, especially the newly released RadBox. His best friend Jon Ho is as well. Sasan's single mother works hard as a nurse, but it takes a lot to support two children, including Sasan's older sister, Darya. Soheila Rad came from Iran, but Sasan's father, whom she divorced years ago, was not Persian. In exchange for getting the $600 game, Sasan agrees to spend two months learning Persian with his mother. At school, he 

is working on a "Who Am I" project with Mr. Webb, whom he rather likes. The teacher makes sure to tell students that if their parents are divorced or if they were concieved through IVF, they can still write about what their idea of family is. There is some research involved into history and family backgrounds as well. Sasan doesn't hang out with the six other Persian students at his school, unless there is a big holiday celebration at the home of some of the wealthier families. His teacher points out that he hasn't even asked his mother how she came to the US. Older sister Darya tries to remind Sasan that their mother can't always provide all of his frivolous requests, and encourages him to be less materialistic. It's hard, though, when Jon is able to buy expansion packs, and other students in the school don't have trouble going to movies, getting snacks, or buying whatever they want. Darya also is annoyed at Sasan's project, since it concentrates more on video games and comic characters than on their cultural heritage. Not surprisingly, after he has gotten the video game he wanted, Sasan spends more time playing the game than he does studying with his mother. After he chooses to go to a Game Con with Jon instead of his mother's birthday party, Soheila is upset. Even though he is desperate to fit in with his friends at school, Sasan sees his sister's point, and creates another "Persian version" of his project, and tries his best to reconnect with his mother and his culture. 

Strengths: The main focus of middle school for many, many students is figuring out their own personal identity. What do they wear? Who are their friends? What activities do they pursue? Increasingly, tweens have complicated family backgrounds, with different cultures and family dynamics. Mr. Webb's acknowledgement of this when assigning the "Who Am I" project was helpful; my school hasn't done similar projects for about fifteen years because students and parents complained so frequently. It makes perfect sense that Sasan is willing to manipulate his mother for the game, and doesn't follow through on his promises, and it also makes sense that he's not really very interested in his Persian background. I enjoyed his older sister trying to make him see the light, and also understood why his mother had trouble stressing the importance of her background, especially since he wasn't receptive. It was fun to see Sasan hanging out with his friend Jon and Jon's family, and taking part in some of their celebrations. The illustration style of this graphic novel is perfect for upper middle grade readers-- it's bright, has just enough details in the background, and has the more angular, black outlined characters that make this seem older. There seems to be a second book coming out.
Weaknesses: Oh, I know from bitter personal experience that middle school students can only be bribed so far. It doesn't have long term motivation. One of my own children got a video game in exchange for doing better at a cross country race; sure, the time was just under fifteen minutes, but the rest of the season reverted to twenty. Sigh. Sasan does slightly better at the end of the book, but I did sort of want to slap him, which was of course the whole point of the story. 
What I really think: Any title involving video games is bound to do well in middle school, and since this is humorous and relatable, I can see it circulating very well. It's good to see graphic novels with boys as the main characters for a change, and nice that this was sort of a memoir but wasn't whiny. I will purchase a copy for my school library. It will be nice to be able to offer my students with Persian backgrounds something in addition to Morrison's The Blue Dress, Amini and Amin's Mixed Feelings, Farazi's Here to Stay and Dumas' fantastic 2016 It Ain't So Awful, Falafel.