Top Girl Gamers and Coders in Kid's Lit
Emmy Levels Up by Helen Harvey (9+)
Online, Emmy is a gamer with lots of fans and followers. However, in real life Emmy is bullied by Vanessa, who says she is “a weirdo with bad handwriting and horrible fashion sense and no dad”. But if Emmy can take on the Mulch Queen, Illusory Isles ultimate baddie, online, perhaps she can also find a way to take on Vanessa too? Emmy needs to “level up”, join forces with some new friends and beat the bullies.
Fun, fresh and five star fabulous, Emmy Levels Up is beautifully authentic and rooted in in friendship, identity and confidence.
A Pocketful of Stars by Aisha Bushby (9+)
Safiya and her mum have never seen eye to eye. Her mum doesn’t understand Safiya’s love of gaming and Safiya doesn't think they have anything in common. As Safiya struggles to fit in at school she wonders if her mum wishes she was more like her confident best friend Elle. But then her mum falls into a coma and, when Safiya waits by her bedside, she finds herself in a strange and magical world that looks a bit like one of her games. And there’s a rebellious teenage girl, with a secret, who looks suspiciously familiar...
Last Gamer Standing by Katie Zhad (9+)
Ready Player One meets the action of battle royale video games in this middle-grade sci-fi perfect for fans of Fortnite.
When Reyna qualifies for the Dayhold Junior Tournament, she knows she's got what it takes to win the championship title and the $10,000 prize. But when she's blackmailed and threatened to be doxed by an anonymous troll, Reyna has to confront the toxic gaming community head-on.
With her dreams and the cash prize on the line, it's game on!
Marie Curious Girl Genius: Undercover Gamer by Chris Edison (9+)
The third installment in the Marie Curious, Girl Genius series sees Marie and her brainiac friends travel to Beijing, China!
Glitzy parties, infinity pools and the latest tech, Marie thought she'd seen it all but now she must face her most difficult challenge yet - going undercover!
Sucked into the world of professional gaming, Marie must infiltrate the GAME House where all the top gamers live, and find the cheating culprit.
SkyWake Invasion by Jamie Russell (9+)
Fifteen-year-old girl gamer Casey Henderson is obsessed with smash-hit game SkyWake. Little does she realize it’s actually an alien training tool created by an evil extra-terrestrial race. When the aliens swoop down on a national gaming tournament, Casey and her teammates discover they’re abducting the best gamers to fight in a distant alien war across the galaxy...
An exciting and original debut sci-fi adventure trilogy for the gaming generation, from a screenwriter, film critic and gamer.
Wonderscape by Jennifer Bell (9+)
Jumanji meets Ready Player One in this time travelling, space jumping, gaming adventure!
When Arthur, Ren and Cecily investigate a mysterious explosion on their way to school, they find themselves trapped aboard The Principia – a scientific research ship sailing through hazardous waters, captained by one Isaac Newton.
Lost in the year 2473 in the Wonderscape, an epic in-reality adventure game, they must call on the help of some unlikely historical heroes, to play their way home before time runs out.
Agent Asha: Mission Shark Bytes by Sophie Dean (9+)
Asha Joshi has the perfect excuse not to finish her homework, she's just been recruited to join the top-secret Children's Spy Agency. Her first mission: SAVE THE WORLD. Can she do it? Asha's a coder so she should be able to hack into the biggest tech company in the world, fight deadly sharks and figure out why the Internet has stopped working. All before bedtime. Easy, right?
This action-packed spy adventure is the perfect story to engage young readers in coding, critical-thinking and STEM.
The Person Controller by David Baddiel (9+)
Fred and Ellie love video games. When a Mystery Man sends them a video game controller it's not like one they've ever seen. And it doesn't control any of their usual games. What it does control, though, it seems like the answer to all their problems. And the key to all their wildest dreams. At least it seems like that…
Funny, engaging, magic and meaningful, this is one laugh-out-loud adventure you won't want to miss!
In the Key of Code by Aimee Lucido
When twelve-year-old Emmy’s musical family moves to California so her dad can take a job with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Emmy has never felt more out of tune. But when she ends up in a school computer science club, she finds that she can understand code through a language she is familiar with: music. Slowly, Emmy makes friends with Abigail and the two girls start to discover their voices through the programming language of Java.
An original, inventive and heart-warming novel that beautifully incorporate Java’s syntax and concepts.
Level Up! by Tom Nicoll (9+)
Videogame-obsessed Flo gets more than she bargained for when she finds herself INSIDE her favourite game, along with her not-so-keen-on-videogames-and-wishing-he’d-stayed-home best friend Max.
Immersed in the world of Star Smasher, they not only have to face armies of soldiers, but also the very real possibility that there may not be a way out. Turns out, virtual reality isn’t as much fun when it’s not so virtual.
SLAY by Brittney Morris (YA)
Black Panther meets Ready Player One. A fierce teen game developer battles a real-life troll intent on ruining the Black Panther-inspired video game she created and the safe community it represents for black gamers.
By night, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson joins hundreds of thousands of black gamers who duel worldwide in the secret online role-playing card game, SLAY. But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, Kiera must fight to save the safe space she's created. But can she protect SLAY without losing herself?
Warcross by Marie Lu (YA)
In this immersive sci-fi thriller, Warcross isn't just a game - it's a way of life. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally.
When Emika hacks into the game illegally, she's convinced she'll be arrested, and is shocked when she gets a call from the game's creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year's tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job.