When he was growing up, Dennis preferred playing video games to anything else. Now that he’s in college … he feels the same way. In fact, he’s just flunked out. But Dennis made a promise to his dying father that he would go to medical school and become a gastroenterologist. That promise comes back to haunt him in the form of four annoying little angels, who are determined that Dennis fulfill his destiny. Plagued, nagged, and harassed by the smiling terrors, Dennis turns in his gaming consoles and becomes a model student. Eventually, he finds himself on his first gastroenterology rotation as a med student. He’s miserable (not to mention grossed out). Gene Luen Yang’s funny and irreverent look at the decisions facing adolescents approaching adulthood acknowledges the very real and often painful moments of misunderstanding that can complicate things as parents’ pressures and expectations conflict with personal desires. Yang’s culturally specific riff (Dennis is Chinese American) on a universal theme plays out with humor and poignancy in this insightful and entertaining graphic novel. (Age 15 and older)

Gene Luen Yang is the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and is a MacArthur Fellow, a recipient of what's popularly known as the MacArthur "Genius" Grant.

A New York Times Notable Children's Book (Young Adult) for 2011

Smackdown!

Video Games vs. Medical School!

Which will win the battle for our hero's attention in Gene Luen Yang's new graphic novel?

Dennis Ouyang lives in the shadow of his parents' high expectations. They want him to go to med school and become a doctor. Dennis just wants to play video games—and he might actually be good enough to do it professionally.

But four adorable, bossy, and occasionally terrifying angels arrive just in time to lead Dennis back onto the straight and narrow: the path to gastroenterology. It's all part of the plan, they tell him. But is it? This powerful piece of magical realism brings into sharp relief the conflict many teens face between pursuing their dreams and living their parents'.

Partnered with the deceptively simple, cute art of newcomer Thien Pham, Gene Yang has returned to the subject he revolutionized with American Born Chinese. Whimsical and serious by turns, Level Up is a new look at the tale that Yang has made his own: coming of age as an Asian American.