Attack of the Not-So-Virtual Monsters (Gamer Squad 1)

by Kim Harrington

Overview

Pokémon Go meets The Goonies in this exciting new adventure series!

What happens when your cool virtual-reality game . . . becomes REAL?
Monsters Unleashed—where you catch virtual-reality monsters on your cellphone—is one of the hottest mobile games around, and Bex and Charlie just can’t stop playing. They even check out an old map in Charlie’s grandfather’s attic in hopes of discovering some forgotten places in town where the rarest monsters might hide. But they find a strange machine up there too, and after Charlie switches it on, the WiFi goes down . . . and Bex’s entire catalog of monsters vanishes! And that’s not the worst of it: all the creatures she’s collected on her phone escape into the real world. Can the friends nab the beasts before they become monster lunch?
 



 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781454926122
Publisher:	Union Square Kids
Publication date:	08/01/2017
Series:	Gamer Squad , #1
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	168,088
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	550L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Kim Harrington is the author of the young adult novels Forget Me (Penguin/Speak), The Dead and Buried, Clarity, and Perception (Scholastic), as well as the middle-grade series Sleuth or Dare (Scholastic). She lives in MA with her family.

Editorial Reviews

08/01/2017
Gr 3–6—Best friends Bex and Charlie are excited to spend the summer before middle school searching for monsters. Like most of their town, they're obsessed with the newest app-based game, Monsters Unleashed, where players find and catch virtual monsters on their phones for points. In hopes of finding the rarest beasts, Charlie and Bex visit Charlie's grandpa's attic to pore over old maps, but instead they stumble upon a strange box. When Charlie switches it on, the Wi-Fi goes out…and all of Bex's monsters vanish from her phone, appearing in the real world. Now the two friends are on a mission to catch all 10 monsters before they, and the rest of their town, become monster lunch. Bex and Charlie deal with mean friends, bullying siblings, and nervousness about starting middle school, but character development takes a backseat to plot-driven action. VERDICT Fans of Pokémon Go will enjoy this slim series starter, where a foreseeable plot keeps the action moving at a quick clip.—Kelsey Johnson-Kaiser, St. Paul Public Library

School Library Journal

2017-05-24
Monsters from a "Pokémon Go"-type game escape into the real world. Bex, 12, is spending the summer before middle school catching virtual hybrid monsters in her favorite augmented-reality game/cellphone app, "Monsters Unleashed," with nerdy best friend Charlie. But after they encounter a strange machine in Charlie's grandfather's attic, Bex's Monster Lab is emptied. They realize it's more than a glitch when one of the monsters attacks them on their way home. Only "Monsters Unleashed" players can see the escaped monsters (though the creatures interact with and affect the real world), and Bex and Charlie figure out that the phone game can be used to recapture the 10 missing monsters. The plot—can the monsters be trapped back in the game before they hurt anyone?—isn't big on surprises, but it is big on action, and the chimera monsters are inventive. Stock side characters include the former best friend-turned-mean girl (and secret gamer) and the bully older brother; their subplots are as subtle as their characterizations. Although Bex and Charlie are white, their Massachusetts town is populated by characters with names that indicate diversity. Post-resolution, the company behind "Monsters Unleashed" releases a new game, which will inevitably cause trouble in the sequel, as will the distance starting the school year seems to place between Bex and Charlie. While there are both better monster and better tech books out there, the fast pace and action focus will appeal to game-addicted readers. (Science fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews