Skywake Invasion

"This is a very different kind of sci-fi. This one is more like an action sci-fi in the vein of Starship Troopers . I should add that the film version of Starship Troopers is very fast-paced but also extremely violent, so is definitely not for children. Skywake Invasion is about a girl called Casey who is a gamer, and plays an online game called Skywake Invasion. Casey is part of a team but because she plays online and she has a voice changer on her mike, her teammates don’t know she’s a girl. The team is invited to go to a big tournament and Casey is worried that they will all find out she’s a girl and not accept her as part of a team because of it, so she takes her brother with her to pretend he’s the player. It turns out that this tournament is actually a recruitment drive for aliens. The aliens have invented the video game to find out who the best kids are at fighting, and they’re going to abduct them all and take them away to their alien planet to use them as soldiers. Casey’s brother is abducted so she has to rescue him. There’s loads of action and stuff going on, but at its heart, the story is about friendship and acceptance and working together. Jamie Russell, who wrote it, is obviously a gamer: he gets the whole gaming thing. It’s great fun. This book is probably for readers at the upper end of middle grade, so 10-12 year olds."