Reyna Cheng is 12, Chinese and a girl -- not that any player in the Junior Dayhold Tournament would know the girl part, because all they ever see is her avatar, TheRuiNar (Get the pun? Love it!), a teen-age boy.
Why not play using an avatar that's a girl? Because the gaming world is full of misogyny -- contempt for and ingrained prejudice against women players. There's only one girl player in the Tournament, and Reyna sees how the other players gang up on her, the fans treat her and how hard she has to play.
Reyna's determined to win the Tournament, but her mother is sick and her father's not convinced his daughter should focus on gaming. He asks her to quit and come home to her mom, but if Reyna wins the Tournament, the winnings could pay for her mother's medical treatments.
As TheRuiNar progresses in the Tournament, defeating ever-more-skilled players and gaining more and more fans, it becomes more and more difficult for Reyna to keep her avatar's identity a secret from her best and most loyal friends at school.
And it's hard to know who her friends are, when some of them parrot the hurtful language they hear from older (boy) gamers.
It's almost too late before she realizes who're her best allies in the Tournament, the gaming world, and at school and home. Enjoy!
