Game On Reading List
Click on a title to check the catalog or reserve a book.
Got a title you think should be on this list? Click here to suggest a new title to include on this list. I'll post the new titles from your suggestions over the summer.
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Where to find the books
YA RL: Teen Room, Summer Reading List
YA FIC, FAN, SF: Teen Room, Hardcover
YA PBK: Teen Room, Paperback
YA PBK FAN: Teen Room, Fantasy paperbacks
YA PBK SF: Teen Room, Science Fiction paperbacks
j: Children’s Room, Hardcover,
jPBK: Children’s Room, Paperback
FIC: Ground floor, Fiction hardcovers
SF: Ground floor, Science fiction hardcovers
PBK: First floor, paperbacks in Reference Room
Fiction
Anderson, M. T. Feed
In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble. So says Titus, a teenager whose ability to read, write, and even think for himself has been almost completely obliterated by his "feed," a transmitter implanted directly into his brain. Feeds are a crucial part of life for Titus and his friends. After all, how else would they know where to party on the moon, how to get bargains at Weatherbee & Crotch, or how to accessorize the mysterious lesions everyone's been getting? But then Titus meets Violet, a girl who cares about what's happening to the world and challenges everything Titus and his friends hold dear. A girl who decides to fight the feed.
Look for under: YA RL AND, YA-PBK FIC AND, YA FIC Anderson, M. T.
Anderson, M.T. The Game of Sunken Places
When two boys stay with an eccentric relative at his mansion in rural Vermont, they discover an old-fashioned board game that draws them into a mysterious adventure.
Look for under: J Anderson, M. T.
Bloor, Edward. Crusader
After a violent virtual-reality game arrives at the mall arcade where she works, fifteen-year-old Roberta finds the courage to search out the person who murdered her mother.
Look for under: YA FIC Bloor, Edward, YA-PBK MYS BLO
Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game
An outstanding tale of the child-hero Ender Wiggin, who must fight a desperate battle against a deadly alien race if mankind is to survive.
Look for under: YA-PBK SF CAR, YA RL CAR, PBK SF CAR, YA-BkOnCD Card, Orson
CLAMP. Angelic Layer
In the distant future, the most popular sport in Japan is Angelic Layer. Contestants use fighting dolls that they hatch and raise from eggs, called "Angels," and battle them in an arena. Mentored by the mysterious Icchan, 12-year-old Misaki has entered the tournament with her doll Hikaru, and together they plan to take the sport by storm.
Look for under: YA GRAPHIC Angelic Layer
Colfer, Eoin. Artemis Fowl (and sequels)
When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty troll.
Look for under: YA FIC Colfer, Eoin, J Colfer, Eoin
Cross, Gillian. A Map of Nowhere
Finding a note in Joseph's lost wallet referring to dungeons and warriors, Nick becomes involved in a fantasy game which takes a dangerous turn when gang members send him on a quest which involves betraying Joseph.
Look for under: YA FIC Cross, Gillian
Feldman, Jody. The Gollywhopper Games
Twelve-year-old Gil Goodson competes against thousands of other children at extraordinary puzzles, stunts, and more in hopes of a fresh start for his family, which has been ostracized since his father was falsely accused of embezzling from Golly Toy and Game Company.
Look for under: YA FIC Feldman, Jody
Fredericks, Mariah. Head Games
Two teenagers connect online in a role-playing game which leads them into their own face-to-face, half-acknowledged courtship.
Look for under: YA FIC Fredericks, Mariah
Gallagher, Fred. Megatokyo (any volume)
Megatokyo follows the misadventures of two young geeks: Piro, an artist obsessed with all things anime and manga, and Largo, a hard-core video gamer. After things go wrong at a gaming expo, the pair set off on a last-minute pilgrimage to Japan. Unfortunately, they discover they have no funds to return. Through accident and quick thinking, they land jobs, then proceed to make friends and tackle a variety of distractions and complications that come their way. summary from Booklist review
Look for under: YA GRAPHIC Megatokyo
Hamazaki, Tatzuya. .hack//G.U.+
It is the year 2017, and the stakes have gotten even higher in the massively multiplayer online game The World--now The World R:2, a dangerous place overrun by player killers, where lawlessness abounds. The PKK Haseo, known as "The Terror of Death," is a fearsome foe who punishes those who want to slay other players. But things have gotten personal as Haseo tries to track down the killer Tri-Edge, who has threatened the real life of his friend Shino...
Look for under: YA GRAPHIC hack//G.U.+
Hautman, Pete. All-In
Having won thousands of dollars playing high-stakes poker in Las Vegas, seventeen-year-old Denn Doyle hits a losing streak after falling in love with a young casino card dealer named Cattie Hart.
Look for under: YA FIC Hautman, Pete
Holkins, Jerry. Penny Arcade: Attack of the Bacon Robots (and further volumes)
Forget your warm and fuzzy newspaper strips. Penny Arcade is a scathing send-up of geek culture with jokes sharp enough to injure an eye. Brash, snarky, and sometimes just outright wrong, Attack of the Bacon Robots! is a hilarious heaping helping of the strip. To say that Tycho and Gabe, its, uh, heroes, are -video-game enthusiasts would be like saying that Anakin Skywalker has issues.
Look for under: YA COMIC Penny
Horowitz, Anthony. Eagle Strike
After a chance encounter with assassin Yassen Gregorovich in the South of France, teenage spy Alex Rider investigates international pop star and philanthropist Damian Cray whose new video game venture hides sinister motives involving Air Force One, nuclear missiles, and the international drug trade.
Look for under: YA FIC Horowitz, Anthony, J Horowitz, Anthony
Hotta, Yumi. Hikaru no Go
Hikaru Shindo is like any sixth-grader in Japan: a pretty normal school boy with a two-tone head of hair and a penchant for antics. One day, he finds an old bloodstained Go board in his grandfather's attic-- and that's when things get really interesting. Trapped inside the Go board is Fujiwara-no-Sai, the ghost of an ancient Go master who taught the strategically complex board game to the Emperor of Japan many centuries ago.
Look for under: YA GRAPHIC Hikaru no go
Hughes, Monica. Invitation to the Game
Unemployed after high school in the highly robotic society of 2154, Lisse and seven friends resign themselves to a boring existence in their "Designated Area" until the government invites them to play The Game.
Look for under: SCIFI J Hughes, Monica
Knaak, Richard. Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy
The adventures of Kalec, a blue dragon who has taken human form to escape the forces that seek to destroy his race, and Anveena, a maiden with a mysterious power. What starts as a flight for survival turns into a quest to save the entire High Elven Kingdom from the forces of the Undead Scourge.
Look for under: OVERSIZE YA GRAPHIC Warcraft
Kostick, Conor. Epic (and sequels)
On New Earth, a world based on a video role-playing game, fourteen-year-old Erik pursuades his friends to aid him in some unusual gambits in order to save Erik's father from exile and safeguard the futures of each of their families.
Look for under: YA FIC Kostick, Conor
Lubar, David. Dunk
While hoping to work as the clown in an amusement park dunk tank on the New Jersey shore the summer before his junior year in high school, Chad faces his best friend's serious illness, hassles with police, and the girl that got away.
Look for under: YA FIC Lubar, David, YA-PBK FIC LUB
Lubar, David. Wizards of the Game
Eighth grader Mercer, whose passion is the fantasy role-playing game Wizards of the Warrior World, hopes to use a fund raiser to bring a gaming convention to his middle school, but instead he attracts four genuine wizards who are trapped on Earth and want his help in returning to their own world.
Look for under: YA FIC Lubar, David
MacHale, D. J. The Quillan Games
Quillan is a territory on the verge of destruction. The people have lost control of their own future and must struggle simply to survive. The only chance they have of finding a better life is by playing the Quillan Games. Hosted by a strange pair of game masters, Veego and LaBerge, the games are a mix of sport and combat. They use the people of Quillan as pawns for their amusement as they force them to enter competitions that range from physical battles, to impossible obstacle courses, to computer-driven tests of agility. To triumph in the games is to live the life of a king. To lose is to die. This is the dangerous and deadly situation that Bobby Pendragon finds on Quillan. He quickly realizes that the only way to save this troubled territory is to beat Veego and LaBerge at their own games and dismantle their horrible fun house. But there is more at stake for Bobby.
Look for under: YA PBK FAN MAC
Michaels, Rune. Genesis Alpha
When thirteen-year-old Josh's beloved older brother, Max, is arrested for murder, the victim's sister leads Josh to evidence of Max's guilt--and her own--hidden in their favorite online role-playing game and Josh, who was conceived to save Max's life years earlier, must consider whether he shares that guilt.
Look for under: YA FIC Michaels, Rune
Nylund, Eric. Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
The Spartan-II program has gone public. Tales of super-soldiers fending off thousands of Covenant attacks have become the stuff of legend. But just how many Spartans are left? While the Master Chief defends a besieged Earth, and the myriad factions of the Covenant continue their crusade to eliminate humanity, an ultrasecret cell of the Office of Naval Intelligence known as “Section Three” devises a plan to buy the UNSC vital time. They’re going to need hundreds of willing soldiers, though...and one more Spartan to get the job done.
Look for under: PBK SF NYL
Rei, Izumi. .hack//Legend of the Twilight
Old-fashioned role-playing games experience a renaissance on the World Wide Web. Twins Rena and Shugo are two middle school students who enter "The World" as level one game characters. When Shugo's character dies he is transported to another level where he is entrusted to bear the Twilight Bracelet by the mysterious Aura. Shugo must find out who Aura is and why she gave him this powerful weapon to protect his sister from the peculiar characters in "The World."
Look for under: YA GRAPHIC Hack
Skurzynski, Gloria. Virtual War
In a future world where global contamination has necessitated limited human contact, three young people with unique genetically engineered abilities are teamed up to wage a war in virtual reality.
Look for under: YA-PBK SF SKU, SCIFI J Skurzynski, Gloria
Sleator, William. Interstellar Pig
Barney's boring seaside vacation suddenly becomes more interesting when the cottage next door is occupied by three exotic neighbors who are addicted to a game they call "Interstellar Pig."
Look for under: YA SF Sleator, William, YA-PBK SF SLE
Sleator, William. Parasite Pig
Sixteen-year-old Barney, infected by an alien parasite, and his friend Katie are taken to the planet J'koot by extraterrestrials intent on playing the dangerous game known as Interstellar Pig.
Look for under: YA FIC Sleator, William,
Stephenson, Neal. Snow Crash
From the opening line of his breakthrough cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson plunges the reader into a not-too-distant future. It is a world where the Mafia controls pizza delivery, the United States exists as a patchwork of corporate-franchise city-states, and the Internet--incarnate as the Metaverse--looks something like last year's hype would lead you to believe it should. Enter Hiro Protagonist--hacker, samurai swordsman, and pizza-delivery driver. When his best friend fries his brain on a new designer drug called Snow Crash and his beautiful, brainy ex-girlfriend asks for his help, what's a guy with a name like that to do? He rushes to the rescue.
Look for under: PBK SF STE
Tashjian, Janet. Multiple Choice
Monica, a fourteen-year-old perfectionist and word game expert, tries to break free from all of the suffocating rules in her life by creating a game for living called Multiple Choice.
Look for under: YA FIC Tashjian, Janet
Vande Velde, Vivian. Heir Apparent
While playing a total immersion virtual reality game of kings and intrigue, fourteen-year-old Giannine learns that demonstrators have damaged the equipment to which she is connected, and she must win the game quickly or be damaged herself.
Look for under: YA FIC Vande Velde, Vivian, SCIFI J Vande Velde, Vivian, J-PBK VAN
Vande Velde, Vivian. User Unfriendly
Fourteen-year-old Arvin and his friends risk using a computer-controlled role-playing game to simulate a magical world in which they actually become fantasy characters, even though the computer program is a pirated one containing unpredictable errors.
Look for under: YA-PBK FIC VAN
Weatherly, Lee. Missing Abby
As the last one to see thirteen-year-old Abby, Emma is determined to discover the truth about her mysterious disappearance, spurred in part by her feelings of guilt over ending their friendship in order to ensure popularity at her new school.
Look for under: YA FIC Weatherly, Lee
Werlin, Nancy. Locked Inside
After she is kidnapped from the exclusive boarding school she attends, heiress Marnie Skyedottir must rethink her idealized relationship with her mother, her own sense of who she is, and her relationships with others.
Look for under: YA FIC Werlin, Nancy
Weyr, Garrett Freymann. The Kings are Already Here
Two teenagers, one obsessed with the world of ballet and the other with that of chess, join together in a quest across Europe and begin to learn not only how to connect with other people, but why.
Look for under: YA FIC Weyr, Garret
Nonfiction
Cooper, Robbie. Alter Ego: Avatars and Their Creators
Alter Ego is a cool concept book, presenting the phenomenon of the contemporary avatar-the virtual characters gamers choose and design to engage in 3D worlds online. Portraits of gamers from the United States, Europe, China, and Japan (including leading figures of the gaming world) are paired with digital images of their alter egos, graphically dramatizing the gap between fantasy and reality. With an introduction by one of digital culture's leading observers, and a glossary of relevant terms, each of the seventy pairs of images are accompanied by detailed gamers' profiles. Sometimes hilarious and always visually exciting, Alter Ego also serves as a guide to the new world of the avatar and is a serious contribution to the debate about the future of society in the digital age.
Look for under: YA 006.6 Cooper 2007
Kushner, David. Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to co-create the most notoriously successful game franchises in history-Doom and Quake-until the games they made tore them apart. Americans spend more money on video games than on movie tickets. Masters of Doom is the first book to chronicle this industry's greatest story, written by one of the medium's leading observers. David Kushner takes readers inside the rags-to-riches adventure of two rebellious entrepreneurs who came of age to shape a generation. The vivid portrait reveals why their games are so violent and why their immersion in their brilliantly designed fantasy worlds offered them solace. And it shows how they channeled their fury and imagination into products that are a formative influence on our culture, from MTV to the Internet to Columbine. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry - a powerful and compassionate account of what it's like to be young, driven, and wildly creative.
Look for under: BIOG ROMERO John 2003
Kutner, Lawrence. Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do
istening to pundits and politicians, you'd think that the relationship between violent video games and aggressive behavior in children is clear. Children who play violent video games are more likely to be socially isolated and have poor interpersonal skills. Violent games can trigger real-world violence. The best way to protect our kids is to keep them away from games such as Grand Theft Auto that are rated M for Mature. Right? Wrong. In fact, many parents are worried about the wrong things! In 2004, Lawrence Kutner, PhD, and Cheryl K. Olson, ScD, cofounders and directors of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media, began a $1.5 million federally funded study on the effects of video games. In contrast to previous research, their study focused on real children and families in real situations. What they found surprised, encouraged and sometimes disturbed them: their findings conform to the views of neither the alarmists nor the video game industry boosters. In Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do, Kutner and Olson untangle the web of politics, marketing, advocacy and flawed or misconstrued studies that until now have shaped parents' concerns.
Look for under: 302.23 Kutner 2008
Jones, Gerard. Killing Monsters : Why Children need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence
Children choose their heroes more carefully than readers think. Drawing on a wealth of true stories, Jones explains why validating children's fantasies teaches them to trust their own emotions, helps them build stronger selves, leaves them less at the mercy of the pop-culture industry, and strengthens parent-child bonds.
Look for under: 303.6 Jones 2002
Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Pop Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter
The $10 billion video gaming industry is now the second-largest segment of the entertainment industry in the United States, outstripping film and far surpassing books. Reality television shows featuring silicone-stuffed CEO wannabes and bug-eating adrenaline junkies dominate the ratings. But prominent social and cultural critic Steven Johnson argues that our popular culture has never been smarter. Drawing from fields as diverse as neuroscience, economics, and literary theory, the author argues that the junk culture we're so eager to dismiss is in fact making us more intelligent. A video game will never be a book nor should it aspire to be-and, in fact, video games, from Tetris to the Sims to Grand Theft Auto, have been shown to raise IQ scores and develop cognitive abilities that can't be learned from books. Likewise, successful television, when examined closely and taken seriously, reveals surprising narrative sophistication and intellectual demands. This book is a hopeful and spirited account of contemporary culture. The author demonstrates that our culture is not declining but changing-in exciting and stimulating ways we'd do well to understand. The glow of the video game or television screen will never be regarded the same way again.
Look for under: 306 Johnson 2005
Marx, Christy. Writing for Animation, Comics and Games
Writing for Animation, Comics, and Games explains the practical aspects of creating scripts for animation, comics, graphic novels, and computer games. It details how you can create scripts that are in the right industry format, and follow the expected rules for you to put your best foot forward to help you break-in to the trade. This book explains approaches to writing for exterior storytelling (animation, games); interior/exterior storytelling (comics and graphic novels), as well as considerations for non-linear computer games in the shortest, pithiest, and most economical way. The author offers insider's advice on how you can present work as professional, how to meet deadlines, how visual writing differs from prose, and the art of collaboration.
Look for under: YA 426.9 Marx 2007
Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman. The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology
The Game Design Reader is a one-of-a-kind collection on game design and criticism, from classic scholarly essays to cutting-edge case studies. A companion work to Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman's textbook Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, The Game Design Reader is a classroom sourcebook, a reference for working game developers, and a great read for game fans and players. Thirty-two essays by game designers, game critics, game fans, philosophers, anthropologists, media theorists, and others consider fundamental questions: What are games and how are they designed? How do games interact with culture at large? What critical approaches can game designers take to create game stories, game spaces, game communities, and new forms of play?
Look for under: 794.8 Game 2006
Various Authors. Gamers : Writers, Artists & Programmers on the Pleasures of Pixels
Writers, artists, scholars, poets, and programmers talk about what gaming means to them and discuss the growing impact of video games on fashion, fiction, film, and music.
Look for under: 794.8 Gamers 2004
Yeffeth, Glenn with Jennifer Thomason. Halo effect : an Unauthorized Look at the Most Successful Video Game of All Time
Examining the Halo phenomenon from every angle—from profiling the greatest Halo player who ever lived to providing a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the wildly popular, virtual-reality Halo movies—this guide is the ultimate companion for anyone who wants to truly understand this amazingly successful video game. With discussions on the role of religion and science in the game, this collection of essays also looks into the creation of and community reaction to the launch of the Halo series. Speculations on the upcoming movie and a rigorous analysis of the vehicles of Halo are also included.
Look for under: YA 794.8 Halo 2007
Salen, Katie. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals
As pop culture, games are as important as film or television--but game design has yet to develop a theoretical framework or critical vocabulary. In Rules of Play Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman present a much-needed primer for this emerging field. They offer a unified model for looking at all kinds of games, from board games and sports to computer and video games. As active participants in game culture, the authors have written Rules of Play as a catalyst for innovation, filled with new concepts, strategies, and methodologies for creating and understanding games. Building an aesthetics of interactive systems, Salen and Zimmerman define core concepts like "play," "design," and "interactivity." They look at games through a series of eighteen "game design schemas," or conceptual frameworks, including games as systems of emergence and information, as contexts for social play, as a storytelling medium, and as sites of cultural resistance. Written for game scholars, game developers, and interactive designers, Rules of Play is a textbook, reference book, and theoretical guide. It is the first comprehensive attempt to establish a solid theoretical framework for the emerging discipline of game design.
Look for under: 794.8 Salen 2003