Here are some stories about gaming, as well as books that will tell you how to improve at games.
This booklist was contributed by Appleton Public Library Reference and Information Services Staff, 04/08
All-in(2007)Having won thousands of dollars playing high-stakes poker in Las Vegas, seventeen-year-old Denn Doyle hits a losing streak after falling in love with a young casino card dealer named Cattie Hart.
Crusader(1999)After a violent virtual-reality game arrives at the mall arcade where she works, fifteen-year-old Roberta finds the courage to search out the person who murdered her mother.
Eagle Strike(2003)After a chance encounter with assassin Yassen Gregorovich in the South of France, teenage spy Alex Rider investigates international pop star and philanthropist Damian Cray whose new video game venture hides sinister motives involving Air Force One, nuclear missiles, and the international drug trade.
Ender's game(1985)Child-hero Ender Wiggin must fight a desperate battle against a deadly alien race if mankind is to survive.
Epic(2007)On New Earth, a world based on a video role-playing game, fourteen-year-old Erik pursuades his friends to aid him in some unusual gambits in order to save Erik's father from exile and safeguard the futures of each of their families.
Genesis Alpha(2007)When thirteen-year-old Josh's beloved older brother, Max, is arrested for murder, the victim's sister leads Josh to evidence of Max's guilt--and her own--hidden in their favorite online role-playing game and Josh, who was conceived to save Max's life years earlier, must consider whether he shares that guilt.
Head games(2004)Two teenagers connect online in a role-playing game which leads them into their own face-to-face, half-acknowledged courtship.
How ya like me now(2007)After his father dies and his mother goes into rehab, Eddie moves from the suburbs into his cousin's Boston loft, where he gradually adjusts to being one of the few white kids in a progressive private school, and learns how to feel like a normal teenager.
Johnny and the bomb(2007)Thirteen-year-old Johnny Maxwell acquires the neighborhood homeless woman's shopping cart when she is injured and discovers that its contents have the ability to send him back in time from 1996 to 1941 England.
Johnny and the dead(2006)After twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell suddenly starts seeing and talking to ghosts, he and his friends become involved in a battle to save the local cemetery.
The kings are already here(2003)Two teenagers, one obsessed with the world of ballet and the other with that of chess, join together in a quest across Europe and begin to learn not only how to connect with other people, but why.
Leo@fergusrules.com : a novel(1999)Leo, a 14-year-old Filipina-American expelled from a dozen schools, is banished to her grandmother's in the Philippines. She spends her time in virtual reality at her computer, living as a warrior and hobnobbing with Socrates. The writer died as the book was being published.
Locked inside(2000)After she is kidnapped from the exclusive boarding school she attends, heiress Marnie Skyedottir must rethink her idealized relationship with her mother, her own sense of who she is, and her relationships with others.
Only you can save mankind(2006)Twelve-year-old Johnny endures tensions between his parents, watches television coverage of the Gulf War, and plays a computer game called Only You Can Save Mankind, in which he is increasingly drawn into the reality of the alien ScreeWee.
The time hackers(2005)When someone uses futuristic technology to play pranks on twelve-year-old Dorso Clayman, he and his best friend set off on a supposedly impossible journey through space and time trying to stop the gamesters who are endangering the universe.
The truth out there(2000)Thirteen-year-old Josh begins digging into the mystery of his Uncle Patrick, an autistic boy who died at Josh's age while investigating the crash of a flying saucer, and a terrible family secret is uncovered.
User unfriendly(2001)It's the most advanced computer role-playing game ever: When you play you're really there—in a dark dream teeming with evil creatures, danger-filled fortresses, and malevolent sorceries. The game plugs directly into your brain--no keyboard, no modem, no monitor. And for game hacker Arvin Rizalli and his friends, no cash up front, no questions asked . . . and no hope of rescue when the game goes horribly, deathly wrong.
The virtual war(1997)In a future world where global contamination has necessitated limited human contact, three young people with unique genetically engineered abilities are teamed up to wage a war in virtual reality.
A war of gifts: an Ender story(2007)"The human race is at war with an insect-like alien race. The first battles went badly, and now Earth prepares to defend itself against the imminent threat of total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable alien enemy. All focus is on the development and training of generals who can fight such a war - and win." "The long distances of interstellar space have given hope to the defenders of Earth - they have time to train these future commanders from childhood, forging them into an irresistible force in the high-orbital facility called the Battle School." "At the Battle School, there is only one purpose, only one curriculum: the strategy and tactics of war. The children are drawn from all nations, all races, all religions. There is no room for cultural differences, no room for religious observances, and certainly no room for Santa Claus. But the young warriors disagree. When one of them leaves a Sinterklaas Day gift in his best friend's shoe, that act of quiet rebellion becomes the first shot in a war of wills that the staff of the Battle School never bargained for."--BOOK JACKET.
Wizards of the game(2003)Eighth grader Mercer, whose passion is the fantasy role-playing game Wizards of the Warrior World, hopes to use a fund raiser to bring a gaming convention to his middle school, but instead he attracts four genuine wizards who are trapped on Earth and want his help in returning to their own world.