Review: A Beginner's Guide to Leveling Up - Elizabeth Aygemang

Review: A Beginner's Guide to Leveling Up - Elizabeth Agyemang - September 2026

I'll admit it I picked this one up expecting a fun, low-stakes gaming story. What I got instead was a graphic novel that quietly snuck up on me and left me a little misty-eyed on my couch, coffee gone cold beside me.

A Beginner's Guide to Leveling Up follows Lexie, a sixth grader who had big plans for this school year: new clubs, the ideal lunch table, and after-school gaming sessions with her best friends. Instead, she's dealing with shifting friendships and the very real, very heavy grief of losing her grandfather. If you've ever watched a kid try to hold it together while everything around them changes at once, you'll recognize that ache immediately.

Here's where the story does something special. Lexie finds a journal hidden among her grandfather's belongings .  full of cryptic notes and cheat codes for an unfinished video game he'd been building called Warrior's Quest. When she and her older sister Eunice get pulled into the game's pixelated world, the story shifts into something wonderfully strange: part TRON-style adventure, part meditation on grief, wrapped up in the visual language of a video game.

What I loved most is how naturally the game mechanics become emotional ones. Leveling up isn't just about defeating pixel monsters,  it's about Lexie learning to face the real "bosses" in her life: loneliness, change, and loss. The sisterly dynamic between Lexie and Eunice adds real warmth too; their bond feels lived-in, occasionally bickering, but fiercely protective of each other once things get tough.

The artwork does a lot of heavy lifting here, sliding effortlessly between the grounded reality of middle school hallways and the glowing, retro-inspired world of the game. It's the kind of visual storytelling that makes you want to slow down and actually look at every panel.

This is a graphic novel I'd hand to any tween who loves gaming, sure  but also to any kid quietly carrying something heavy that they don't quite have words for yet. It treats grief with honesty, without ever losing its sense of adventure or fun.

If you're looking for a book that respects kids enough to tell them the truth about hard feelings while still letting them have an epic, joystick-gripping adventure this one belongs on your shelf.

Amazon: https://link.amazon/B00rQC8zf