LAST GAMER STANDING

A hardworking prodigy takes the gaming world by storm, one epic battle at a time.

Mysterious new gamer TheRuiNar is turning heads in the 2067 Junior Dayhold Tournament. Looking at TheRuiNar’s teenage male avatar, no one would ever guess that the person behind this virtual reality star is Reyna Cheng, a 12-year-old who got a scholarship to attend the prestigious Dayhold Academy’s summer camp. Winning the tournament can rocket young players to e-sports stardom, but for Reyna the stakes are even higher. If she’s eliminated, she’s promised her struggling immigrant parents that she’ll give up her dreams of gaming forever. Winning the prize money would not only prove she has what it takes to be a pro gamer, it would also pay for her mother’s cancer treatments. Does Reyna have the physical, mental, and emotional endurance to keep her identity a secret and become the next champion? Gripping game play as well as cliffhanger chapter endings make for an adrenaline-filled reading experience. Reyna is an ambitious, emotionally vulnerable narrator who games to escape the hardships of the real world while also acknowledging and fighting back against race and gender discrimination in the White, male-dominated tech world. Reyna’s Chinese American cultural heritage is rich and nuanced, from her complicated, realistic relationship with her parents to her K-Pop–blasting pre-gaming ritual. Reyna’s friends are racially diverse.

Emotional depth and nuanced representation level up this action-packed, futuristic page-turner.