Level Up

Author: Gene Luen Yang
Illustrator:Thien Pham

Theme: Making Choices, Growing up
Genre: Fiction, Growing up
Age: 12+

Synopsis: Dennis Ouyang is trying to live up to his parents expectations of him becoming a doctor, but all he wants to do is play video games. Some unexpected visitors show up to push him towards his destiny, but Dennis finally decides to take his destiny into his own hands.

This book is interesting in that it teaches the idea of making choices and making big decisions in life, such as whether to pursue your own aspirations or to fulfill the dreams and goals that your parents have for you. The interesting part about this book is that it is presented in the form of a comic, which might help to capture the attention of some of your students, and it is presented in a way similar to that of a video game, which might help to gain the attention of even more of your students.

Pre-reading activity:Video games are a large part of our lives, as technology is such a large part of our lives. Before reading the story, ask your students what they want to do when they grow up (become a doctor, teacher, etc.) Or you can ask them what their lives would be like if it were a video game. Discuss these as a class and make a list of the different options.

Post Reading Activity:After reading the story, have the students decide what they want to do when they grow up and have them make their own video game comic about their lives, and their journey to get to be what they want to be when they grow up. Set specific guidelines as to how many blocks they will need to fill in or set a page limit, as you may find that some students will find that they will have too much fun with this project and want to keep going. Display these works afterwards around your classroom. 

About the Author: Gene Luen Yang started publishing comics in 1996 under the name Humble Comics, and in 1997 he received the Xeric Grant for Gordon Yamamoto and the King of Geeks. Yang has won many awards for some of the different graphic novels that he has written in the last few years. In addition to his writing and drawing, Yang is a Computer Science teacher at a Catholic high school in California and recently started teaching at Hamline College as part of their MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. To learn more about Yang, visit his website.

Yang, G.L. (2011). Level Up. NY: First Second. Grades 5+.