How Many Pages Does Insert Coin to Continue
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Soooooo good that I can't read anything else right now. Laughed a lot, cried a tiny bit. One perfect, incredible, weird middle school day!
E ARC from Edelweiss Above the Treeline
Bryan and his friend Oz have a boringly normal life are a little obsessed with the Sovereign of Darkness video game. When Bryan apparently uncovers a secret level of the game, however, his life seems to BECOME a video game. Flashing blue lights in the air ask him to "insert coin to continue" and award
E ARC from Edelweiss.Soooooo good that I can't read anything else right now. Laughed a lot, cried a tiny bit. One perfect, incredible, weird middle school day!
E ARC from Edelweiss Above the Treeline
Bryan and his friend Oz have a boringly normal life are a little obsessed with the Sovereign of Darkness video game. When Bryan apparently uncovers a secret level of the game, however, his life seems to BECOME a video game. Flashing blue lights in the air ask him to "insert coin to continue" and award or take away points based on his actions. He's followed to school by a pack of ninja bicyclists who try to get him, the white board in his math class becomes a game he must defeat, and dodge ball in gym becomes the most hysterically painful game in the history of poor phys ed curriculum choices! Even his teachers seem in on it, especially when Mr. Tennebaum assigns a detention and sends Bryan to retrieve the cake of gold from the glass case in the "sanctuary where the elders gather in repose" and dieting teachers attack Bryan for a Twinkie! Even though Bryan feels compelled to keep playing, he has to contend with his real life as well. School muscle head Tank things that Bryan has made disparaging remarks about his mother and challenges him to meet after school, and his long-time crush Jess seems oddly interested in him. Oz, as well as friend Myra, are there to help him out, but how Bryan needs to figure out how to get to "Game Over" by himself.
Master of Middle Grade Anderson returns to his action and adventure roots with a superlative fantasy novel that includes everything my students love best-- laugh-out-loud scenes with evil teachers and improbably circumstances, fascinating characters you wish would sit at your lunch table, a little light romance, and VIDEO GAMES. The current trend toward incorporating games into novels definitely has my approval, since it's a surefire way to get even the most reluctant reader to give a book a try.
I loved the fact that most of the book took place during one school day. While some of Bryan's classes were more interesting than others (the jam session in band being more exciting than reading Romeo and Juliet in language arts), the spin put on every day activities showed a deep understanding of how a middle school day works as well as how students feel about what goes on around them.
The characters were also well-developed and multi-faceted. I was particularly fond of Myra, who was snarky but very astute. Oz was an excellent foil, and embodied the well-meaning squirreliness of middle school boys. Jess was a bit of a mystery to us and to Bryan, and the back story of the two's relationship made the ending of the book completely satisfying.
Middle grade readers will enjoy Anderson's other titles, and there are so many other video game books out this fall that readers who enjoy playing games will be glad to add this title to the growing list, which includes Korman's Slacker, Brown's Josh Baxter Levels Up, Markell's Click Here to Start, and Schrieber's Game Over, Pete Watson. Anyone else who wonders what really goes on in the custodian's lair or the principal's office will find Insert Coin to Continue a brilliantly amusing tale of how to survive the game of middle school.
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NYP 9/20/2016 - June Cleaver's ratings: Language PG; Violence PG; Sexual content G; Nudity G; Substance abuse G; Magic & the occult G; GLBT content G; adult themes (bullying) PG; overall rating PG.
Liz's comments: I'm always looking for (1) funny stories, and (2) stories boys will like. This one is both! There are LOL moments even for middle-aged library ladies, and gamers especially will be drawn into the story even if they aren't great readers. This one is great for the MS library.
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I have mentioned several times before my penchant of reading a recommended book without actually ever looking at the synopsis. Such was the case with Insert Coin to Continue by John David Anderson. It was recommended and is a Cybils nominee so I just didn't bother. I assumed it was a book about a kid who gets trapped inside a video game. But that's not what happens at all. His life becomes a video game, and that's an interesting twist to
Originally posted here at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.I have mentioned several times before my penchant of reading a recommended book without actually ever looking at the synopsis. Such was the case with Insert Coin to Continue by John David Anderson. It was recommended and is a Cybils nominee so I just didn't bother. I assumed it was a book about a kid who gets trapped inside a video game. But that's not what happens at all. His life becomes a video game, and that's an interesting twist to the story idea.
Bryan is a master at playing Sovereign of Darkness, his favorite video game. He's defeated it several times but he keeps playing because he is absolutely certain there is a secret hidden extra level after defeating the ultimate bad. One night all is effort and time are rewarded when it looks like he's unlocked it.....
Then his computer crashes.
Bryan wakes up the next morning to the words INSERT COIN TO CONTINUE flashing above his alarm clock with numbers counting down from 20. And he can't move his legs. Bryan inserts a coin on his nightstand into the mysterious slot on his alarm clock and begins the strangest day of his life. Every move he makes words appear in the air only he can see giving him points or taking them away. When he massively fails he has to insert another coin. As the day goes on, Bryan realizes he is going to have to keep playing until he defeats the real world "dark lord" and come out victorious in the game of middle school.
I liked the idea of this book when I originally thought Bryan found himself in a game of middle school. I LOVE that his actual real life became a game. You may wonder at the difference, but for me it was a major one. The stakes somehow seemed higher as Bryan was moving through his actual day in the world he actually lives in with people who know him and who he will have to continue to interact with day after day. And honestly middle school doesn't really need to be amped up all that much to make the idea that it is a perilous game of life or death work. Let's face it. We've all been there. The game aspect adds a little edge to the things that already make a middle schooler's life hard: navigating crushes, choosing teams in P.E., school projects, quizzes, teachers who seem to have it in for you, bullies, reading Romeo and Juliet, and DODGEBALL. Every middle grade reader will recognize all of these elements and appreciate Bryan's fear and humor in dealing with them.
The story takes place over the course of 24 hours and is fast paced. The reader follows Bryan throughout his entire day as he navigates his classes while his life hangs in the balance and his pocket change begins to run out. The book is laugh out loud funny in places and cringe inducing in others.
Bryan is a relateable character who is slightly awkward, but mostly an average kid. There is not a tremendous amount of character development done as this is just 24 hours and there is a lot of action, but Bryan's personality shines through well enough that I think young readers will identify with him. Bryan's best friend Oz is a great part of the story too. They have a realistic believable friendship and their interactions are the best in the book.
I think this is a definite must for all middle school libraries and classrooms (and upper elementary as well). For anyone who knows a kid stuck in the game of middle school, this book may help them through it.
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Anderson got to be very creative with all the different classes and parts of Bryan's day and how they could incorporate video game elements. Crossing the road feels much like Frogger, geometry becomes an epic white board race to solve the problems before the figures drop off the bottom of the board, science becomes a quest to find an escapes lab mouse in the boiler room, PE is a dodgeball war game, but my absolute favorite was English where Romeo & Juliet becomes a role playing game you have to choose at each step how to continue the play and manages to incorporate a ninja, a dragon and a zombie horde (best version of Romeo & Juliet ever!). Lots of fun with an otherwise typical middle school day. Definitely recommended for middle school boys who a reluctant readers.
Notes on content: No language issues beyond some mild name calling. No sexual content beyond a kiss. There is a fist fight that results in some minor injuries, and a dodgeball game that has lots of bruises and one bloody nose. Some teachers fight over a treat (and one gets bitten).
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Summary
Bubbly middle school hijinks novel about a boy who wakes up to realize his life is a videogame. Subtle references to famous videogames like Tetris and Rock Band. While the premise sounds appealing to a wide range of reading experience levels, this book's dry sense of humor and use of sophisticated vocabulary make it more appropriate for somewhat experienced readers. Less experienced readers looking for some video games in their books might be better off with a work lik
*arc from edelweiss*Summary
Bubbly middle school hijinks novel about a boy who wakes up to realize his life is a videogame. Subtle references to famous videogames like Tetris and Rock Band. While the premise sounds appealing to a wide range of reading experience levels, this book's dry sense of humor and use of sophisticated vocabulary make it more appropriate for somewhat experienced readers. Less experienced readers looking for some video games in their books might be better off with a work like Gordon Korman's Slacker
Review:
I fell absolutely in love with Ms, Bixby's last day, so I was looking forward to reading another middle schooly book by John David Anderson. Coin and Bixby have some elements in common: they both feature adorkable boy main characters, they both poke fun and embrace the hero's journey motif, and they are both pitch-perfect for middle school.
However, I found Coin more lacking in the character development department, where Bryan's adventures felt episodic and some late-stage character growth felt incredibly forced upon the story. This may or may not be something the middle grade audience cares about, but when I compare this book against the tremendous characters of Bixby, I can't help but feel that Anderson has done better.
Perhaps the biggest challenge to helping the right reader find this book is that a book talk is going to be misleading. Based on the premise, students are going to be clamoring for this one, only to be frustrated, bored, and confused if they are also not prepared for dorky humor like references to Bryan's Boots of Average Walking Speed. It's these moments of built-in laughs that will make this book delightful for some readers who are ready to infer tone and meaning based on specific word choices and difficult for highly literal readers or English Language Learners.
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This book is action-packed, humorous, and engaging. The plot is complex and pulls the reader into the story. The characters are fun to read about and add a lot of depth to the story. Fans of video game-based books like Julia Durang's The Leveller and James Dashner's Eye of Minds will enjoy reading this book.
Recommended for Grades 4 to 7 or ages 8 to 12
This book was featured on The Keepers of the Books' Weekly Reads 12 episode. For more book reviews, recommendations, or online librarian advice, please visit us at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK3v...
You may also find a copy of this review on kissthebook.blogspot.com
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OH!!!
Read it aloud to someone! I wish my kids were younger so I could. This book BEG Once again John David Anderson has written a hilarious, sweet, thoughtful book! Of course, kids will probably just say hilarious, but I see what you are doing when you write, Mr. Anderson, with all of your awesome worldly wisdom . He is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. If he writes it, I buy it! PLEASE read this book...you will not regret it! (Also, be prepared to laugh out loud...yes, it's that funny!)
OH!!!
Read it aloud to someone! I wish my kids were younger so I could. This book BEGS to be read aloud! Do it!!! I dare you!!! ...more
He gains points and loses some. Towards the end of the book, he is challenged by the school's bully who is on the football team to a fight after school. He and his friends think that
A young boy named Bryan Biggins is obsessed with a game called Sovereign of Darkness. He thinks that a pulsing light behind the credits is the key to the bonus level, but can never get to it. He therefore played all fifty levels nine times. After the tenth time he played it, his life suddenly became the game itself.He gains points and loses some. Towards the end of the book, he is challenged by the school's bully who is on the football team to a fight after school. He and his friends think that is what he has to do to win the game as at the end of the real game, the player fights the Demon King to win.
(view spoiler)[He wins the fight, but he only gets an upgrade. Then there is a party, which he goes to with his friend after realizing that to finish he needs to admit how he feels about the girl he has a crush on to the girl herself. He finally wins the game. At the end of the book, his friend, Oz, freezes in fright as the Demon King says the same thing it said to Bryan: "Congratulations, warrior. It is time for your true journey to begin." (hide spoiler)]
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The book is about a 7th grade gamer, Bryan, who defeats a video game multiple times, trying to find the secret level that is supposedly hidden. He realizes he's finally found it, when one night, his computer apparently crashes. The next morning, when he's trying to get out of bed, he sees blue letters hovering above his alarm clock. They say, "Insert coin to continue". Once he finds a coin from his floor and drops it int
I can picture a gamer who isn't much of a reader totally getting into this.The book is about a 7th grade gamer, Bryan, who defeats a video game multiple times, trying to find the secret level that is supposedly hidden. He realizes he's finally found it, when one night, his computer apparently crashes. The next morning, when he's trying to get out of bed, he sees blue letters hovering above his alarm clock. They say, "Insert coin to continue". Once he finds a coin from his floor and drops it into the slot, he is able to get up from his bed and start his day.
The rest of the book has references to video games real and imagined. It's very fun and not very serious at all. Which is a welcome change to some of these books! My only real gripe was that I kept picturing high schoolers as the characters, not 7th graders. It just didn't seem to fit.
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**Side note: I love Ready Player One . Unfortunately, I compare every game world book to it. Th
It was fun to read a gamer middle grade book. There is a lot of humor, middle school turmoil (but not in the annoying angsty way) and gaming fun. I really liked the way Anderson used gaming terms and the power/level up to enhance the story. The scene from Romeo & Juilet was classic. I think this had the realm of gaming down pat much more that some of the other middle grade attempts I've read recently.**Side note: I love Ready Player One . Unfortunately, I compare every game world book to it. This is a good middle grade edition to that adult book. It isn't the same kind of world building and that is okay. It is the level that middle graders are ready to read which makes it a successful read!
Good for 4th grade and up.
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What they liked: It was funny. Some of the teacher's names were puns. The great and powerful Oz. Romeo and Juliet re-imagined.
They also liked figuring out which video games were being referenced - frogger, mario brothers, etc.
What I liked:
Some stereotypes were maintained, but others were stood on their heads. It gave us good fodder to discuss bullying, cliques, and prejudice.
The "romance" was a
Aimed at 8-12 year-olds, my two sons fit the demographic perfectly - 8 and 11 year-old video game fans.What they liked: It was funny. Some of the teacher's names were puns. The great and powerful Oz. Romeo and Juliet re-imagined.
They also liked figuring out which video games were being referenced - frogger, mario brothers, etc.
What I liked:
Some stereotypes were maintained, but others were stood on their heads. It gave us good fodder to discuss bullying, cliques, and prejudice.
The "romance" was at the right level. My eight-year-old was a bit bored by it, still thinking girls are gross, but there was nothing that made any of us uncomfortable.
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This was not really what I thought it was going to be. I thought the video game aspect was going to play a bigger part; it wasn't really that integrated at all. The violence got a bit much for a realistic MG. This was basically like that episode of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide where Ned daydreams his way out of Sweeney's science lair by solving the puzzly word puzzler. I found some bits humorous, and I liked all the references (though I doubt kids would get many
CW: bullying, violenceThis was not really what I thought it was going to be. I thought the video game aspect was going to play a bigger part; it wasn't really that integrated at all. The violence got a bit much for a realistic MG. This was basically like that episode of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide where Ned daydreams his way out of Sweeney's science lair by solving the puzzly word puzzler. I found some bits humorous, and I liked all the references (though I doubt kids would get many of them).
On the back of my copy Bryan's avatar is spelled Kieran, but in the text itself it's Kerran. This is not a misspelling, these are two completely different names.
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John David Anderson's "Insert Coin To Continue" was a wonderful, lighthearted, laugh-out-loud-with-tears-in-your-eyes read. If you're a fan of "Ready Player One" or Austin Grossman's
"You", find a copy of it and read it. Now. You won't be disappointed. I like to spontaneously pick up and check out the books I find lying out of place at the library. It's pretty hit or miss as a selection method, but sometimes.... sometimes you strike gold.
John David Anderson's "Insert Coin To Continue" was a wonderful, lighthearted, laugh-out-loud-with-tears-in-your-eyes read. If you're a fan of "Ready Player One" or Austin Grossman's
"You", find a copy of it and read it. Now. You won't be disappointed. ...more
John David Anderson once hit himself so hard on a dare by his sister that he literally knocked himself out of a chair and nearly blacked out. He has since translated this passion and singularity of purpose to the related arts of novel writing and pizza eating. The author of STANDARD HERO BEHAVIOR, SIDEKICKED, MI
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.John David Anderson once hit himself so hard on a dare by his sister that he literally knocked himself out of a chair and nearly blacked out. He has since translated this passion and singularity of purpose to the related arts of novel writing and pizza eating. The author of STANDARD HERO BEHAVIOR, SIDEKICKED, MINION, THE DUNGEONEERS and the soon-to-land MS. BIXBY's LAST DAY, Anderson is a firm believer in wearing the same pair of jeans for three days in a row (four in the winter) and the power of writing to solve 73% of the world's problems. He lives with his beautiful wife and twins in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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