Totally Unleashed

AUDIENCE: video-game fanatics and anyone who loves dogs, weird cats, or parrots that talk too much. TEASER: If you could take your pet with you into a video game, would you kick butt or die of embarrassment? And what if you could create an on-screen "you" who's the person you've always dreamed of being? Would you ever stop playing? In Unleashed ... * Sami loves a brilliant dog named Blaze. * Bear owns a mongrel known as Mutt. * Hannah endures a talking bird (Einstein) and a fussy cat (Sublime). *Trane is about to unleash a devilish dog named Blood and a seven-foot python known as Muscles. They're all trying to find a place called Freeland, where pets and owners who have bonded are known as "twins." SUMMARY: The video game UNLEASHED allows players to take their dogs, cats, parrots, and snakes into cyberspace, where all pets possess enhanced intelligence (yes, they talk). Cyberspace is a zit-free zone. Our twelve-year-old heroes (Sami and Bear) are lookin' good and our villains (Steve the-Freight-Train Trane and Jake-the-Snake Simmons, also twelve) are all muscle, all mean. Both sides are convinced that their super-pets will enable them to kick butt and gain glory. VIDEO GAME TIE-IN: The novel and the video game share the same name, Unleashed. The objective of the game is to find Freeland, an area that is free of radiation and unblighted by toxic waste. To get there, players and their pets must journey through a desert known as the Wasteland, endure a toxic wilderness called the Badlands, survive Oblivion Falls, and sneak through the city of Bedlam. MAJOR CHARACTERS: We focus on the emotions of two characters, Sami James and Bear Brewster (age twelve). Both are modern kids with modern problems. Bear is polar-bear big and teddy-bear nice - most of the time. Lately he's been having a lot of trouble controlling his anger, and he's discovering that his dad also has a hidden history connected with his temper. Sami hates acting like a mother to her own mom, but she does what's necessary to get her barely functioning parent to work every morning. WEBSITE: www. LeeSmyth.com