From Publishers Weekly
A video game overlaps with family dynamics in this rousing but possibly overstimulating picture book from an Australian author and artist. When the narrator receives the game "Power and Glory" as a birthday present, he begins trying to defeat its lineup of enemies. Yet each time he meets a new villain, a family member cuts in-for "I fight the witch... I fight the witch," for example, his mother, broomstick in hand, orders him off to breakfast ("Game over"). A vulture heralds his sister, dressed in a sweater that echoes the bird's plumage; and so forth. Replaying the game from the beginning after each interruption, Rodda builds up a throbbing rhythm that approximates the intensity of the play. Linocut-style pictograms of game icons appear amid the text, and the typeface changes size and color for emphasis on approaching danger. Full-page futuristic-style paintings, composed of pointillistic fields of hot orange, yellow and green, alternate between family scenes and battles within the video dimension. The subject will be dear to many in the target audience, but some parents might object to the way the violent gaming action ("I jump him, thump him, thrash him, trash him... and I win! YES!!!") spills into the story and pumps up the reader. Ages 5-up.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 4?An Australian import that tackles the insidious adolescent pastime and electronic metaphor for social interaction: the video game. With illustrations reminiscent of a Lane Smith/Dan Yaccarino collaboration, Kelly takes Rodda's cumulative story about a boy attempting to play his new video game, the omnipotent sounding "Power and Glory," and taps the contemporary imagination. Amid all the emphatic interruptions from his mother, twin brothers, sister, drooling dog, and dad, the valiant lad tries to give the video witch, goblins, vulture, beast, and ogre a run for their money. This story should elicit strong empathy from the youngsters who can enjoy the visual play of inter-family quibbling and the catharsis of blasting these distractions ("I jump him [the ogre], thump him, thrash him, trash him, mush him, crush him, I defeat him and I win!") by pushing the right buttons. Power and Glory is a big, bold, colorful, and cartoony quest for control over electronic nemeses.?John Sigwald, Unger Memorial Library, Plainview, TX
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
