grandma's bookshelf - Gamer Squad - I'm Giving Two Away!

I am often given the opportunity to review - and give away - picture books, but once in a while I'm invited to review a chapter book. Since my oldest grandson loves chapter books I was very happy to say yes when Sterling Children's Books invited me to review two books in their new Gamer Squad series - and share them with you today!

Attack of the Not-So-Virtual Monsters
Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind
Author - Kim Harrington
Publisher - Sterling Children's Books
Ages - 8-12

Favorite Features -

• Fun storyline which involves kids and tech-related adventures.
• Children who enjoyed playing Pokemon Go will find this new book series one they enjoy reading.

Sterling Children's Books says; "What happens when your cool virtual-reality game . . . becomes REAL? Monsters Unleashed—where you catch virtual-reality monsters on your cellphone—is one of the hottest mobile games around, and Bex and Charlie just can’t stop playing. They even check out an old map in Charlie’s grandfather’s attic in hopes of discovering some forgotten places in town where the rarest monsters might hide. But they find a strange machine up there too, and after Charlie switches it on, the WiFi goes down . . . and Bex’s entire catalog of monsters vanishes! And that’s not the worst of it: all the creatures she’s collected on her phone escape into the real world. Can the friends nab the beasts before they become monster lunch?" And; "First they took on monsters. Now they have to face ALIENS. Come join Bex and Charlie on their second thrilling adventure in the GAMER SQUAD series! After their scary adventure, Bex and Charlie have sworn never to play Monsters Unleashed again. Then Veratrum Games Corp releases a new augmented reality game featuring aliens instead of monsters, and the best friends just can’t resist. After all, everyone loves it, even their science teacher, because it includes real star charts. But when they go to an observatory on a class trip, and open the game near a radio telescope, they get more than they bargained for: REAL aliens. One is sweet and kind; the other . . . not so much. Can Bex and Charlie capture the bad ET before it destroys their town?"

My grandson read these books and said they are books kids are going to like. I agree and am happy to see a series where children learn to work together to solve a problem (and monsters and aliens on the loose certainly qualify as "problems") and while there is no lack of excitement, the story is also about middle-grade kids, the problems they face growing up and how they solve them. I'm also happy to see the main character is a girl - I expected this role to be filled by a boy.

Looks like the Gamer Squad will be a fun new series for children to read and enjoy!

I'm very happy to say, not only did Sterling Children's Books send me these two books for review, but they are making additional books available for me to give away (USA only)! If you are over the age of 18 and would like to enter this drawing for one each of Attack of the Not-So-Virtual Monsters and Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind- which will be on September 10, 2017, please comment below to tell me about a series of books you enjoyed reading when you were young - for me it would have to be the Bobbsey Twins or Happy Hollisters!

In addition if you have followed on Google Friend Connect, followed by liking on facebook with the tab in the "Find us on Facebook" box ON THE BLOG or at this link (not just liking the post) and/or have followed grandma's cookie jar by email you will receive one entry for each of these which you have done. Plus, if you "share" this post, you'll receive another entry (please let me know if you share). This will help me be able to draw names from among people who would like to win one each of Attack of the Not-So-Virtual Monsters and Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind and it gives you several ways to enter the give-away! Thank you for reading grandma's cookie jar and for sharing it with the people you know!