Leon Levels up

Volume XXX / Issue 19 - January 26 / 2024

Leon Levels up

Author: 
Paul Coccia
Series: 
Orca Currents
Victoria, BC: Orca, 2024
99 pp., trade pbk., pdf & epub, $10.95 (pbk.)
ISBN: 
9781459837355 (pbk.) 9781459837362 (pdf) 9781459837379 (epub)
Grades: 
Grades 4-7
Ages: 
Ages 9-12
Review by: 
Christina Pike (Reviewed from Advance Reading Copy)
4
Excerpt: 

It’s not just that Nico has no reason to be talking to me. It’s that he has every reason not to talk to me. Nico’s dad, Ren, is the founder of Pix Grid, one of the best video-game developers around. Slumber Party Fortress is their newest release. Everyone is playing it. Aside from being super fun, their games are on the cutting edge of the latest breakthroughs.

Nico’s dad has been on the cover of all these tech and gaming magazines. I guess it helps that he looks kind of like a model. Nico takes after his dad. The modern haircuts. The awesome clothes. The sparkling smiles that look like they came out of a toothpaste ad.

Nico’s shirt sleeve slides up. He’s wearing the brand new Pix Grid watch. It won’t even be available to buy for another six months! Nico is basically the highest evolution a twelve -year-old can unlock.

Meanwhile I’m stuck in my starter form…

Nico tosses his hair. It does that slow-motion thing again. “I was thinking we should hang out.”

Leon Levels Up tells the story of 12- year-old Leon’s day with Nico testing out the newest game Nico’s dad’s company, Pix Grid, has created. It is a virtual reality game but with a twist. The players live the adventure they are gaming.

Coccia has created a story that is about more than gaming. It crosses the barriers of friendship and the difference between what is cool and what is not. In the character of Leon, the reader meets an awkward 12- year-old who becomes the person he wants to be in real life through his gaming world. Leon excels as a gamer. His polar opposite, in Leon’s eyes, is Nico. Nico is the popular kid who has it all. Through this novel, the reader sees that things are not always as they appear. Leon is able to move beyond his insecurities and rise above or “level up” as the author writes it.

Leon Levels Up is a must read. There are many important lessons to learn about friendship, self-worth, what it means to be a hero, as well as a few cautionary notes about tech and the crossover between reality and the virtual world.

Highly Recommended
Reviewer: 

Christina Pike is the retired principal of Macdonald Drive Junior High in St. John’s, Newfoundland.