Rising Star

Jaden has a problem. In fact, Jaden has quite a lot of problems. One with which almost everyone can sympathize is his older – twin – siblings, who are good at everything but especially sports (like their father). Jaden is not sporty. The one thing he is good at is playing video games, particularly Cross Ups, Versions I through IV. When he gets sent a pre-release disk of Version V to try out (yes, he is that good!), suddenly he finds he can't control his favourite avatar's best attack move, and a dragon-human hybrid who can't use his Dragon Super Fire is pretty defenceless. That's Problem Number 2. Problem Number 3 is that he and his best friend Cali, also no slouch at Cross Ups and perfectly comfortable with her Version V dire wolf-human cross, have been selected on the basis of their abilities with I--IV to represent their local gaming club at the launch of Cross Ups V in New York. WOW! But Jaden knows his parents, i.e., his mother, will never let him go. Is this a problem in itself, or is it the solution to Problem Number 2? If he can't go, he won't have to flub his matches in front of lots of people. However Problem Number 4 arises when his father sees this as an opportunity to bond with his non-sporty son, and he offers to drive not only Jaden, but Cali, two of their best friends, and Jaden's older brother down to the launch. Then there is an totally unrelated problem which is that the prettiest girl in the school has asked – no, make that "insisted" – that Jaden be her running mate in the school elections in order that a couple of jocks don't get in by acclamation and ruin their last year in middle school. And, if you're still counting, I guess another problem is that Jaden actually fainted in front of the whole school when he was supposed to say something in the school assembly in response to his nomination. He really really isn't good at public speaking! But since they are running on a platform of "making memories", maybe that wasn't such a bad thing to do. People did remember!

There you have the first six chapters. The rest of the book is devoted to resolving these problems and a few others that crop up along the way. The answers tend to be fairly predictable, but they fit the context of the story and send the messages that we, as adults, would like to have sent, such as: No, don't take drugs (even if everyone else is)! And so forth. Anyone into combat video games, and that is practically everyone of school age, will empathize with Jaden's struggle with Kaigon and his lost super power, and certainly anyone who has had to give a speech will suffer along with Jaden’s stage fright. The solutions are not necessarily universally applicable, but they fit and make a good story. Middle graders will love it, and one useful message that they may just take away with them is: When you think you have a real problem, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!