conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me a description for a book titled The Memory Wall about Nick, Severkin, Alzheimer's with the genre: Children's Books, Growing Up & Facts of Life.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Gr 7 UpNick is struggling to accept his mother's diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's disease. The story opens as Nick and his dad bring his mom to live at an assisted living facilitybut Nick refuses to believe that his mother is truly ill. Severkin is the character Nick plays in Wellhall, a video game. Severkin is a courageous and adventurous gray elf. While Nick searches for connection with his mother, who may be slipping away more each day, Severkin discovers clues in the game world, and Nick believes they evidence of his mother trying to communicate with him. There are multiple layers and themes explored in this work. Nick's mother's family history links to East Berlin and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Themes about outsider experiences and racism (Nick is biracial) are woven throughout. Most poignant, the details and realities of Alzheimer's are depicted with care and accuracy. The severity of the disease and the impact that it has on an entire family are brought into sharp focus. The video game world of Wellhall is well built, and Severkin's story seamlessly ties into Nick's own. VERDICT A complex and emotionally rich selection that offers a nuanced and needed perspective on the grieving process. A strong addition for middle and high school collections.Chad Lane, Tulip Grove Elementary School, MD
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Add another sentence about Germanic.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Gr 7 UpNick is struggling to accept his mother's diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's disease. The story opens as Nick and his dad bring his mom to live at an assisted living facilitybut Nick refuses to believe that his mother is truly ill. Severkin is the character Nick plays in Wellhall, a video game. Severkin is a courageous and adventurous gray elf. While Nick searches for connection with his mother, who may be slipping away more each day, Severkin discovers clues in the game world, and Nick believes they evidence of his mother trying to communicate with him. There are multiple layers and themes explored in this work. Nick's mother's family history links to East Berlin and the fall of the Berlin Wall. There are references to Germanic mythology. Themes about outsider experiences and racism (Nick is biracial) are woven throughout. Most poignant, the details and realities of Alzheimer's are depicted with care and accuracy. The severity of the disease and the impact that it has on an entire family are brought into sharp focus. The video game world of Wellhall is well built, and Severkin's story seamlessly ties into Nick's own. VERDICT A complex and emotionally rich selection that offers a nuanced and needed perspective on the grieving process. A strong addition for middle and high school collections. Chad Lane, Tulip Grove Elementary School, MD
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the first five paragraphs for this book.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Memory Wall
  Nick had laughed when he realized that a few weeks ago, when they'd picked a "check-in date" for the home, like it was some sort of hotel. He didn't know why he laughed—he was just sitting at the table, reading one of his game magazines, and he'd noticed the release date in an ad, and that was the first time he'd realized it, and he'd laughed. Mom and Dad had looked at him, confused, but hadn't asked anything. Mom had even smiled. She didn't know it wasn't a happy laugh.
  He takes the game out. It's wrapped in that insect-wing-thin plastic, and he immediately starts trying to pick it off, but then he stops and looks at the front of the box. He already knew what the cover looked like—he'd seen it on all the spoiler-free websites, in the spoiler-free reviews—but to be holding it is something else. Knowing he could be playing it in a matter of hours—once the mistake of today is done—makes him feel a lot better about everything. It frees him, for just a moment, from the sad, angry, weak, too-heavy-to-move way he's been feeling for months. All of it lifts, then crashes back down again like a tidal wave.
  The cover shows the mountain city of Wellhall, capital of Erenia, homeland of the gray elves. This game is the fifth in the series. Each installment happens in a different homeland, hundreds of years apart, so each new game is familiar but still fresh. This one has all sorts of new tech, too: next-gen graphics, AIs so real you can't tell them from people, and online capabilities—he doesn't know yet if that last feature is a good thing. But it's the gray elf homeland, and that's exciting, because he always plays as a gray elf—a treasure hunter/explorer named Severkin (his own name, Nick Reeves, spelled backward but with some letters taken out, because when he first made him four years ago he thought that was cool; he still thinks it's sort of cool). The mountain city on the cover looks like a spiral into the clouds. Carved staircases wind up the city, and stained-glass windows shine like embedded jewels. Above it is the title of the game in carved letters:
  In the game, there's this poison—ragebrew. You prick someone with it and they get crazy angry, start attacking everyone in sight. Severkin uses it to cause distractions when he needs to get into well-guarded ruins or private collections, like when he'd liberated the Shield of Chalaak from the hidden crypt in the Royal Jungles of Aneer. One dose and the guards patrolling the jungle—open only to the royal family—were distracted by one of their colleagues as Severkin leapt from tree to tree, following the directions on an ancient map.
  When Dad asks that question, it's like Nick has been pricked with the poison. He can feel anger as a bright white liquid pouring into his blood and making it fizz. He can't explain it, but he hates the way Dad asks it like a question. Like there's a chance of backing out now.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me five more paragraphs.. Start with the sentence 'Reunne nods again'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Reunne nods again. "Mistress Frigit seldom asks for help from anybody, so it's probably going to be difficult."
  Reunne says nothing, and they walk on in silence. The sleet falling on the ground sounds to Severkin like a hundred whispers in the dark.
  THEY ARRIVE at the city of Grayhome half an hour later. The sun has set and the wind seems stronger than before, but Severkin can see the city clearly by the light from the torches that hang in glass spheres, suspended from lines crisscrossing the sky like the laces of a sandal. Grayhome looks like a crystal formation made of buildings, laid out at odd angles. The buildings are stone, but snow and ice have found every available edge to cling to, so the walls have white lines all over them and it seems the ice crystals have been shattered, with their cracks radiating out through the whole city. Behind the city, the Tower rises up, three times as tall as any other building but of the same style—narrow, with sharp angles. But, unlike the other buildings, it's a pale gray, and where the frost touches it, it seems to glow.
  Severkin approaches the barkeep, an unimpressed-looking gray elf woman, and asks for three rooms for the evening and three mugs of ale. She pours the ale and hands out the keys.
  Reunne nods as she drinks her ale. "Yes. They're fun for scaring adults. And it teaches basic explosive principles. The gray elves from the undercity usually aren't taught much more than that, though."
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the last four paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: He walks slowly up the stairs and down the halls, noticing the other residents; white hair, polite smiles, expressions like curious cats. They're all inside today, and when he passes a rec room, he sees them all gathered around a TV, one of them with a game controller in his hand. He steps in and watches the old man play Wellhall for a while. He's a knight, hitting goblins with a sword.
  Dad laughs and then rests his hand on Nick's head. "Okay," he says. "Thanks, Jess. Say hi to Ms. Knight for us."
  And Staab! My wonderful former housemate and all-around amazing human being deserves credit not just for his feedback about perceptions of Germany, but for all the actual German he corrected. Especially the swearing. Also Boris, who talked to me about growing up under communism.
  As always, I owe eternal gratitude and love to my parents for their endless support and encouragement.