“Most people don't realize how important librarians are. I ran across a book recently which suggested that the peace and prosperity of a culture was solely related to how many librarians it contained. Possibly a slight overstatement. But a culture that doesn't value its librarians doesn't value ideas and without ideas, well, where are we?”
Neil Gaiman

Sunday, September 23, 2012

A Reading Adventure for the Avid Teen Gamer













Erebos 
By Ursula Pozanski

Reading Erebos was like entering into the mind of a teens on a wild fantasy gaming trip.  As the teacher of teens and mother of an avid pre-teen gamer, I was immediately attracted to the idea of a book with this description …

“When 16-year-old Nick receives a package containing the mysterious computer game Erebos, he wonders if it will explain the behavior of his classmates, who have been secretive lately. Players of the game must obey strict rules: always play alone, never talk about the game, and never tell anyone your nickname.

Curious, Nick joins the game and quickly becomes addicted. But Erebos knows a lot about the players and begins to manipulate their lives. When it sends Nick on a deadly assignment, he refuses and is banished from the game.”

I was not disappointed.  Erebos is a book filled with mystery, realistic teen characters, and a fantastical plot.  While the plot may be a little far-fetched, I believe we read books in order to enjoy a little fantasy.  The teen characters are challenged with one of my favorite themes: choices.  It is a theme I talk about with teens often and Pozanski presents the theme in an enjoyable format.  Teens are at an age where discussing with them the impact of the choices they make upon their lives and the lives of others is critical and any resource we can find to help get the message through to them is of value in my book.  Erebos is a fun, fantastical, sometimes frightening, way to appeal to teens that their choices do have an impact.

Melissa Singleton Josef, MLIS

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