Can Super Rabbit Boy, "the greatest hero of all time," advance through six levels to reach Boom Boom Factory, defeat evil King Viking, save Singing Dog, and bring fun back to Animal Town? With illustrations galore and a graphic-novel-style presentation, this fast-paced story takes readers inside the handheld device of a young gamer. The first in the Press Start! series, this transitional chapter book takes its cue from retro video games, like Sonic the Hedgehog. The digital illustrations use bright neon colors and pixelated shapes. Appropriate for its audience, only a few lines of text appear on each page. While the narrative font is easy to read, the pixelated all-caps "game" font might be a bit challenging for less-experienced readers. Word repetition is built into the story, as Super Rabbit Boy dies repeatedly, forcing him to retry levels. Although the abrupt conclusion isn't as satisfying as the buildup, the gaming gimmick and graphic layout is sure to appeal to many readers, especially reluctant ones.

In these early chapter books, Super Rabbit Boy is unaware he exists within a video game. Bright pixelated illustrations mimic video-game play, but the books occasionally pull back to reveal the child controlling the game in more cartoony scenes. This general conceit of a story within a story following video-game conventions will appeal to young gamers and encourage independent reading.

In a video game, a superpowered rabbit must rescue a singing dog that brings everyone happiness.In the frame story, a brown-skinned human protagonist plays a video game on a handheld console evocative of the classic Nintendo Gameboy. The bulk of the book relates the game's storyline: Animal Town is a peaceful place where everyone is delighted by Singing Dog, until the fun-hating King Viking (whose black-mustachioed, pink-skinned looks reference the Super Mario Brothers game series villain, Wario) uses his army of robots to abduct Singing Dog. To save Singing Dog-and fun-the animals send the fastest among them, Simon the Hedgehog, to get Super Rabbit Boy (who gains speed and jumping powers by eating special carrots) to save the day. The chapters take Super Rabbit Boy through video game levels, with classic, video game–style settings and enemies. Throughout the book, when the game's player loses either a life in the game or the game entirely, the unnamed kid must choose to persevere and not give up. The storylines are differentiated by colorful art styles-cartoonish for the real world, 8-bit pixel-sprite–style for the game. The fast, repetitive plot uses basic, simple sentences and child-friendly objects of interest, such as lakes of lava, for children working on reading independence, while the nerdy in-jokes benefit adults reading with a child. A strong series start. (Early reader. 5-7)

Gr 1-3 A young boy playing a handheld video game as the character Super Rabbit Boy works his way through many colorful pages of peril, navigating a sea of Robo-Crabs, biting Robo-Fish, quicksand, Robo-Snakes, and the very scary Mount Boom and trying to save Singing Dog and all of Animal Town from King Viking and his robot army. The point of view quickly shifts from a third-person perspective of the boy in his messy bedroom to a first-person perspective as the boy plays his game, then flashes between these two viewpoints throughout. Brightly colored illustrations of the game screen move the story along rather quickly. With short chapters and full-color pages, this first installment in a new series will draw in young independent readers. VERDICT A strong addition to most chapter book collections, especially where there are gamers. Lindsay Persohn, University of South Florida, Tampa