THE AMULET OF KOMONDOR

In this facile, thin fantasy, 12-year-olds Joe and Katie are drawn into a video game in which they must put together the five pieces of a dragon amulet in order to save a kingdom. DragonSteel, a card-collecting game, morphs into a real land in which Joe and Katie become Japanese animé cartoons, huge-eyed and unable to feel physical pain, but able to cast spells and win Power-Up Bonuses. Their trials as they travel through Komondor are dealt with too easily and quickly (instantly, most of the time) to inspire any suspense or satisfaction, and their intermittent visits back to earth are populated by self-centered, hard-to-believe parents and FBI agents. Joe and Katie are blandly generic, as is the writing; and with the plot’s adventures and threats consistently slick and shallow, there’s nowhere to look for fulfillment. Don’t bother—go play a good video game instead. (Fantasy. 7-9)