Melody loves playing video games. She loves it so much she’s ditched school for games, and spends every day in the arcade. And then one day she gets trapped inside a game and doesn’t know if there is a way home.

Despite the label isn’t really a fantasy. It’s a children’s book, with shades of sci-fi. Its definitely a children’s book: the font is large, the writing style plain and easy to follow and the language kept deliberately simple. The story is simple and the way she gets into and out of the games is glossed over in the sense of many children’s books. The issue of Twyla turning up on her family’s doorstep as a teen not a child is also not covered. The old-style platformers described went out years ago.

Melody is not a particularly sympathetic lead: she lies, steals and pretends to be sick just to get more time on games. There’s a problem from an older viewpoint: Melody is skiving school, blowing off her little brother, and ditching everything to play video games. Its pretty obvious she’s addicted. By the time she steals her little brother’s piggy bank to buy games it is obvious she is showing all the signs of addiction. (And if twenty-one dollars and ninety-three cents isn’t enough to buy a video game she’s not a gamer – or at least not familiar with the right places to get games).

While this may be fun for young children, it will be a little too unchallenging for older ones.