Book Description:
A mysterious package.
A new school.
A chance to be someone new.
A new virtual reality school where students get a fresh start.
The pandemic was rough on everyone, especially since school went from being a fun place where you could hang out with your friends to a bunch of heads in small rectangles all trying to talk at once. For Bradley, Edelle, Hunter, Jasper, and Keiko, that’s about to change.
A mysterious box arrives at each of their houses, and they’re invited to attend a virtual school. More than just being online, they’ll be able to create an avatar of themselves and interact with their friends and other classmates in real time using VR headsets.
For each of them, that presents an opportunity to become someone they’re not, or someone they haven’t been. For Bradley, it’s a chance to come out of a self-imposed shell. Edelle hopes everyone will see her for who she really is, not just for how she looks. Hunter is looking forward to pretending he’s still the person he was last year. Jasper wants to get over past assumptions. And for Keiko, it’ll allow her to disappear into the crowd.
For all of them, it’s a chance to see just how much they’ve assumed about each other in the past and maybe an opportunity to become friends.
Review:
It took me a little while to get into this story, but once I did I really enjoyed it. It has a great message about what really matters in our relationships and being kind. It was also very relevant with pandemic, and using a situation like that to see what’s important. I also felt it was really important for the authors to show the real lives of several kids-so readers can see that there's so much we don't know or understand about what people are going through. The virtual school with being able to be someone new helped the characters to take a look at themselves too. And learn how others saw them and their actions. This book holds a message that is truly needed. The authors make a wonderful writing team.
About the Authors:
CHAD MORRIS loves the VR set he got for Christmas and is much better at it than he is at video games, but that’s still not saying much. Still he would love to try to keep his balance on Skatecoaster, laugh like crazy in The Furriest, and punch light blastsat alien bugs in Infestation ExtermiNation. He occasionally dances in public, and he’s pretty terrible at social media.
SHELLY BROWN went to junior high in a regular ol’ building (boring) and has never transformed into a round fuzzy animal. But she has been listening to K-pop since before BTS’s first album and feels a deep affection for well-made falafel pitas. She’s an aunt to some incredible young people, a substitute teacher, and a wannabe Kyoshi warrior.
As a married couple, Chad and Shelly both love writing books and hanging out with each other and their five kids. They’re grateful they get to spend time with students in assemblies across the nation talking about topics from kindness to writing.
Author: Chad Morris and Shelly Brown
Publisher: Shadow Mountain Publishing
Published: February 2023
ISBN: 9781639930531
Source: I received a review copy from the publisher. All opinions expressed are my own.
Purchase: Amazon | Deseret Book
No comments:
Post a Comment