In Real Life: IRL

From the Publishers:

From acclaimed teen author Cory Doctorow and rising star cartoonist Jen Wang comes a New York Times-bestelling graphic novel that takes a sensitive, thoughtful look at adolescence, gaming, poverty, and culture-clash.

Anda loves Coarsegold Online, the massively-multiplayer role playing game that she spends most of her free time on. It's a place where she can be a leader, a fighter, a hero. It's a place where she can meet people from all over the world, and make friends. Gaming is, for Anda, entirely a good thing.

But things become a lot more complicated when Anda befriends a gold farmer—a poor Chinese kid whose avatar in the game illegally collects valuable objects and then sells them to players from developed countries with money to burn. This behavior is strictly against the rules in Coarsegold, but Anda soon comes to realize that questions of right and wrong are a lot less straightforward when a real person's real livelihood is at stake.

In Real Life is a touching and morally complex tale for young adults.

My Thoughts:

This is a popular premise - the gaming world breaks into the real world - and it dates back to our favorite classic fantasy books from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis to the recent book to movie Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (2011). Authors use this premise to talk about societal issues through the fantasy world or the world of gaming as a way to tell a contemporary allegory. 

It is as surefire a formula for YA success as the dystopian novel. Add the additional plus of a female gamer (girl power is the theme this decade) and IRL appeals to manga fans who are ready to tackle social justice and equality along with Anda. 

Other reads/movies along this line (a non-scientifc list):

Tron (1982) Movie about a computer hacker is abducted into the digital world and must play gladiatorial games to escape

The Last Starfighter (1984) by Alan Dean Foster - a high school senior masters a video game, not knowing that he is playing for real. Also made into a movie

Ender's Game (1985) by Orson Scott Card. This is my sister's favorite book. Battle simulations to real life as the world must be save by aliens. I am not doing the synopsis justice, but it is a great book.

Ready Player One (2011) by Ernest Cline. This is my son's favorite. He made us all read it and I must say I am excited for the movie coming out this year.