SYNOPSIS

Think a puff piece on gaming, without much substance.

Includes a long list of pro gaming glamors, starting with earning prize money (!), lots of practice (six to eight hours a day of fast clicking!), teamwork (?!), and stress.

This may have been someone’s well-intentioned effort to document an ubiquitous “Esport”.

But despite a brief mention of stress, “gaming disorder” and the need to eat healthy, this project reads like the brainchild of a sinister marketing executive looking to give video game sales an extra boost.

PERFECT AGE N/A

WATCH OUT FOR (Language, Big / Sensitive Topics, Outdated Concepts):

• “I found this book in the school library today! It says gamers are healthy and get paid a lot. Why won’t you let me practice my gaming every day?” ~ My 8yo son

CAUTION

• I’m embracing my bias. When parents are fighting real battles with their children’s screen addictions, books like this one don’t help. I respect the publishers’ intent for this book’s series – featuring unusual careers (e.g., princess, soldier, YouTube star…) – but this installment misses the mark by a lot. It starts by glamorizing the money-winning aspect and ends with suggestions on how to organize your own gaming party at home. In between, it normalizes dangerous habits in children like obsessing over screens 6-8 hours a day, and we learn nothing about the risks of isolation, sleep deprivation, asocialization brought on by competitive gaming. And we’re advised that gamers should eat salad “like all people”.
• Also, the visuals are just random and the callouts are plain dumb.
• We should come up with a term for wasteful reads masquerading as books – “Dud books”? “Doo-doo books”? “Dooks”??