Weir, A. (2011). Ready player one. NY: Broadway Books. Eighteen-year-old Wade Watts is the protagonist in Ready Player One. In the novel, Wade needs to find an Easter egg within the OASIS by its creator, James Halliday. Wade plays OASIS to unlock the Gates to get to the egg, and meets companions along the way. The novel ends with the unlocking of the Third Gate killing everyone except Wade, who enters Halliday who rewards Wade billions of dollars in assets. In the real world, Wade meets Art3mis and they are left pondering what to do with their fortune. I think the intended audience for Ready Player One might be for ages might be for ages 13 and up. Recommendations for follow up reading include The Martian by Andy Weir, The BFG by Roald Dahl, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. I think Ready Player One meets the physical developmental criteria because in the novel, the players spend a lot of time trying to perfect their avatars into their ideal selves. Some players’s appearances might differentiate from their avatars, wight heir avatars appearing opposite from their actual appearance. I also think Ready Player One meets the mental developmental criteria because Wade must enter into a virtual world through his avatar, Parzival, and fight through the game to get to the egg. He meets a sexy avatar, Art3mis, who catches his eye. This also happens in the real world when Wade meets Art3mis’s human controller, who he also thinks is beautiful.
