June 2011/160pgs.About the Book: Dennis Ouyang is trying to live up to his parents expectations. He'd rather stay at home and play video games, but after his father's death, he decides to fulfill his father's wishes and go to med school. With the help of four angels, Dennis is about to discover his destiny.
Sarah Teenlibrarian Says: I love Gene Luen Yang's Printz winning graphic novel, American Born Chinese and I expected Level Up to be another witty and heartfelt coming of age story. In some ways it is, but I was let down by this one.
I think with the cover and the title and the character obsessed with video games, I expected this one to have more of a video game feel to it, ala Scott Pilgrim. But instead, the video game aspect is pushed to the side and instead we get a story about Dennis dealing with his grief over his father and his drive to make his father happy.
I wanted more about the angels but instead they seemed to come and go and never really connect with the story. I also wanted a bit more humor-while there are moments of humor, the tone of Level Up is much more serious.
It's still a good graphic novel and I'm continualy impressed with Gene Luen Yang's work, but I had hoped for a bit more.
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