Critters

Max has several problems—Larry, his history teacher and Mum's new boyfriend, and Larry's evil son, Josh, who keeps teasing him at school. Max's younger brother, Liam, seems to like Larry and spends lots of time annoying Max. All Max wants to do is finish playing his computer game and beat his previous record, destroying Vertigo. But when Mum and Larry have to run an errand, and Liam comes in to interrupt Max, Max's world is turned upside down. He and his brother become trapped in a game Liam downloaded on their neighbour, Miss McBoob's, phone. The only way back is to beat every level in the game. Shrinkle's cat, the narrator on the phone screen, tells Max that he and his brother will be transformed into a different creature on each level. Then, they must answer a true or false question about that creature to move up. If they get the answer wrong, they will remain whatever it is—a flea, a mouse, a pigeon—for the rest of their days. With such high stakes, Max needs to ensure that there is no chance he and Liam will get the answer in each level wrong. But how can Max possibly know whether fleas can jump to two hundred times their height? A fast-paced adventure in which two brothers reconnect as they explore the real-life challenges of being a tiny critter.