My enormous thanks go to Kirsten Knight at EK Books for sending me copies of the first two books in Emily Snape’s Game On Series, Shrinkle (Game On 1) and Glitched (Game On 2) in return for an honest review. With last minute Christmas gifts perhaps needed or book tokens received to be spent in the New Year, this series would be perfect for readers aged 8-12 and it’s my pleasure to share my reviews today.

Shrinkle and Glitched are currently on offer from EK and available for purchase directly here.

Before I review each book individually, I cannot stress enough how fabulous both books are for reluctant readers, and what cracking books they would make for classroom use. Indeed, they do exactly what Emily Snape set out to do:

Author and illustrator Emily Snape’s sons were both reluctant readers, which made her want to write books that they wouldn’t be able to 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.’

Game On: Shrinkle (Game on, 1)

Everyday objects will never seem the same again for Max and Liam as they try to beat the game, and each other.

Gaming-obsessed Max and his infuriating younger brother, Liam, are forced to work together to survive epic adventures on a miniscule scale. When rebellious Liam starts playing ‘Shrinkle’ on his babysitter’s phone, he has no idea what he’s letting himself in for. The app shrinks the brothers to the size of a minifigure! Their safe home has suddenly become a treacherous landscape. Can they scale sofa mountain, escape Miss McBoob’s snoring mouth and outsmart the now-enormous pet cat? And will they stay tiny forever?

With a clever mix of realism and fantasy and packed with exciting gaming strategies, crazy scenarios and gross facts, Game On: Shrinkle is perfect for reluctant readers, particularly boys.

My Review of Shrinkle

All Max wants is a quiet evening to himself after a rotten Friday at school. 

Shrinkle is fast paced, funny and hugely entertaining. Jam packed with weird facts, gaming references, the embarrassment of having a younger brother, a single Mum at the end of her tether banning screen time and Emily Snape’s Shrinkle is brilliantly relatable for young readers. 

The illustrations really bring the story to life and are a kind of cartoon/Manga crossover that will thoroughly appeal to the target readership. I thought the balance of text to image was spot-on and I loved the pixelated chapter headings, or rather, gaming levels, as Max and his brother Liam find themselves shrunk into a computer game controlled by a malevolent cat. There’s a real sense of urgency too as the game timer ticks down and Max and Liam strive to work out the riddles presented to them in order to escape the game and not spend the rest of their lives only seven centimetres tall. 

Whilst there are puns, jokes and riddles that are really entertaining in a total romp of a story, what I thought was so brilliant about Shrinkle was the way Max realises just how much he loves and needs Liam in spite of Liam’s infuriating behaviour and their constant bickering. I can envisage many a young reader experiencing similar frustrations with their own siblings, but as a result of reading Shrinkle, coming to realise that they do still care about them. 

Shrinkle is great fun. It’s filled with peril and humour. It’s exciting and witty and it’s completely appealing. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Oh, and if you find your school back-pack mysteriously crammed with pants rather than books, don’t make assumptions about how they got there. 

Glitched

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 animals!

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.

My Review of Glitched

Max regrets not washing his hands!

Glitched is absolutely brilliant. It’s packed with humour (particularly poo related) that readers of all ages will adore. The way the phone battery level reduces as each chapter is read is just perfect as Max and Liam get into ever increasing difficulty, and the illustrations are wonderful, balancing the text so that even the most reluctant young reader can’t fail to be drawn in. I’d love to see Glitched as a middle grade class reader as I think it would inspire reluctant readers and boys especially to engage with reading.

The plot is breathtakingly fast and it’s impossible not to want to read on. I loved the joke that school history is so hated by Max but is the focus of his adventures. Indeed, Glitched brings history to perilous life for the two brothers in this exciting story so that it might well just ignite a passion for the subject. It might even encourage investigation into a youngster’s own local history as the area around Max and Liam’s home features in each adventure and yet is very different to what they usually see.

Glitched is cleverly and sensitively written because it subtly examines family dynamics. Max is exasperated by his younger sibling, and they are frequently furious with one another, but their bond and love for each other lies beneath the surface. Similarly, Emily Snape suggests that when parents split up and marriage fails, it is possible for them to develop new relationships. Whilst these are only passing themes in the exciting and engaging story, they do allow some young readers to identify aspects of their own life they might be finding tricky and to understand better how to deal with them.

I thought Glitched was absolutely great and thoroughly enjoyed it. And whatever you think of Glitched, it’ll make you certain to wash your hands after using the toilet! 

About Emily Snape

Emily Snape is a children’s author and illustrator living in London. Her work has appeared online, on television (for Nickelodeon and the BBC), in shops and even on buses! She loves coffee and notebooks, and has three cheeky children, Leo, Fin and Flo who keep her on her toes and give her lots of inspiration for stories.

Emily loves to mix real life with a twist of fantasy, throwing everyday emotions and events up in the air and allowing us to consider them from another angle. Her previous books include Fergus the Furball, a funny tale for independent readers, and board books for younger readers. These include An Alphabet of Hugs, and Hey! Look at you…On the Move and Hey! Look at you…In the Jungle.

Emily has two sons close in age who often bicker, so when she decided to write a book for 7–11 year olds, she wanted to explore sibling rivalry, with humour and a fast-paced, unpredictable plot.

For further information, visit Emily’s website, or find her on Instagram.