Game On: Glitched by Emily Snape

Title: Game On: Glitched

Author: Emily Snape

Genre: Historical Fiction, Time Travel

Publisher: EK Kids

Published: 1^st September 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 192

Price: $16.99

Synopsis: Max is horrified to find that younger brother Liam has learned nothing from their previous adventure.

Once again Liam opens an app on Miss McBoob’s phone, and this time the brothers travel through time. Without leaving their town they find themselves in the Stone Age, the Roman Era, the Middle Ages and finally in the age of the dinosaurs! Will they be able to work together to solve the riddles and return to their own time before the battery runs out? Or will that irate mammoth get to them first? Warring brothers Max and Liam find themselves trapped in a time-travel game. Can they survive the dangers and solve the riddles without killing each other? Gaming-obsessed Max and his infuriating younger brother, Liam, are forced to work together when a new game on Miss McBoob’s mobile phone sucks them into a time-travelling vortex.

The ‘Glitched’ app transports the brothers to earlier versions of their home town where they find themselves in the Stone Age, in Roman times, in the Middle Ages and in the age of the dinosaurs. To return to their own time they must solve riddles while dodging woolly mammoths, jousting knights, and all manner of bodily fluids, both human and animal! Author and illustrator Emily Snape’s sons were both reluctant readers, which made her want to write books they could not resist reading! Reading should be a pleasure and it was Emily’s aim to write books that pull you in and hook you from the start. ‘Hopefully, then you can’t help being moved by the characters as they grow and develop. I love comedy in books, but funny books also have to have heart, believable characters, and a great plot that keeps you reading till the very end.’ With a clever mix of realism and fantasy and packed with historically accurate settings, crazy scenarios, and gross facts, Game On: Glitched is perfect for reluctant readers, particularly boys.

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Max and Liam are back – and so is Shrinkle, the cat who sent them on their last adventure with a game Liam found on their babysitter – Miss McBoob’s – phone called Shrinkle. This time, Shrinkle is back with a new phone and new game on Miss McBoob’s phone that sends them back to their home town in different periods throughout history. They travel to to the Stone Age and meet Dren, encounter Titus in Roman times, Matilda in the Middle Ages, and finally, as the battery is dying, they have to escape the world of the dinosaurs.

In each time period, they’re challenged to take a picture of an artefact – and it all seems to be linked to Max’s school project about the history of their town. Max has zero interest in his homework assignment and would much rather be playing video games. He’s on a gaming and technology ban, though, and he also has to deal with Liam, his annoying brother. When Liam steals another phone from Miss McBoob’s rubbish, they’re thrust back in the past. But the game is clever. It hasn’t dumped them in random times and random places – they’re still in their hometown – but are seeing it through the Stone Ages, Roman times, the Middle Ages, and the age of the dinosaurs.

Bubbling behind the adventure is the sinister app, run by Shrinkle. Whatever Shrinkle’s game is, he seems determined to trap and trick the brothers in a game, and to keep them away from home. Knowing this from book two, I think I missed something in book one, so would be interested to know what it is. However, I do think it is easy to follow what has come before as this series is aimed at reluctant readers, and it does explain a few things that you need to know if you are coming to this series from the second book rather than the first book. This is an effective way to create a series like this, or any series – to give the reader enough of what they need to know if they miss the first book, so they can go back when they get it or read from wherever they come in. It helps to ensure that the series can move on as well as keeping the books linked. It’s a matter of repeating the necessary information in a new way, but not taking away from the current story.

Presenting history in this way makes it interesting – putting the child reader into the story in a way that is relatable as well as showing them that there are any facets to history and reading that can be fun and will encourage them to see it all differently – hopefully. History is more than just the stories and accounts in history books, and when you can bring something someone knows into history – like where they live and show them that there have been generations of lives there, I feel like it can bring history and the modern world, the current times to life in new and vibrant ways beyond what is usually shared. This is a great way to tell a story as well, and bring what kids know and what the past is together in creative ways.

Glitched is set in England, so the time periods that the boys go back to fit with the historical aspect and give readers a taste of what each time period might have been like, with engaging characters, plots, and a quest that is quite literally a race against time and decreasing battery power. The chapter titles are the battery percentages, which adds to the tension of the countdown and time running out. It’s a clever technique that I think will keep kids reading, as they will be eager to see how it all ends and if Max and Liam get home. It has moments of humour and moments of worry, but I don’t think it is an overly scary book, and I hope that there will be eager readers out there for it, as it looks as though it will be very appealing to lots of readers out there.