My video game ate my homework

An incredible engineer, Dewey Jenkins, 13, struggles with "the other stuff" ("Numbers. Writing. Reading.") due to dyslexia; in addition, a VR gaming console called the Infinity Lens has just randomly eaten his science fair project--a ketchup volcano--which represents his last chance at avoiding summer school. Dewey enlists his twin sister, Beatrice, and both of their best friends to venture through the Infinity Lens portal and retrieve the volcano. Hansen leans into the video game setting by emulating recognizable user interfaces: captioned portraits, character and item cards, and dials that denote enemy stats. In densely populated art, Hansen offers high levels of energy as the team faces off against a wide variety of creatures (skeletal bone rats, spidery pyrachnids, and more) en route to defeating the big boss. With Beatrice's support, Dewey also begins to navigate his feelings about his abilities: "This isn't about believing in myself.... This is who I am," he tells her. Though secondary characters experience little development and the ending focuses more on technicalities than emotional thrust, fully realized backgrounds and expressive cartooning offer visual spark. Seeing Dewey succeed not in spite of but because of his abilities and ingenuity is deeply satisfying. Ages 8--12. (Apr.)

Four friends enter a virtual reality video game and complete a quest to retrieve an important science project in this new graphic novel. Thirteen-year-old Dewey is a maker, but he has difficulty with reading, writing, and numbers due to dyslexia. He is depending on his fabulous science project he's worked so hard on to save his final grade--and his summer from summer school. It would be nice to win the science prize while he's at it: a chance to play a new VR game console before it's released. When Dewey's friend Ferg shows up with the console in his backpack, broken from his tampering with it, he pleads with Dewey to fix it. It's an emergency for Ferg: He needs to return it before his father, the principal, notices it's gone. But when the game eats Dewey's science project, the stakes are raised for him too. Dewey's twin sister, Beatrice, and her good friend Katherine are along for the ride as they enter the game and figure out the rules, powers, and perils to complete their mission and get home. This comic features a diverse cast of likable middle schoolers; Dewey and Beatrice both present black, Katherine is Latinx, and Ferg is white. Appropriately, the story is both momentum-driven and episodic, like a video game--except it ends with a satisfying conclusion, unlike many video games. The graphics are busy and crowd the panels, but they match the story's action and bring the game setting to life on the page. A fun read with a deserving hero. (Graphic fantasy. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.