Not even the biggest die-hard Minecraft fans can live on screen time alone, so when it’s time for them to step away from their favorite game, you could try some of our screen-free Minecraft games, or offer up one of the cool little Minecraft Handbooks by Scholastic in front of them. It’s a great way to get even reluctant readers to devour something in print.
The Official Mojang Minecraft Handbooks are a series of four hardcover books dealing with, you guessed it, all things Minecraft. Throughout this series, kids will learn Minecraft essentials, combat, construction, and how to use Redstone, all written to help kids become even better builders the next time they log into their account and to help parents understand what Minecraft is all about, if they don’t have their own accounts already. (Definitely check out our Minecraft primer for parents too, if you haven’t already).
I love the cover design on these four books which would look very nice lined up in your child’s bookcase when they aren’t being read. But, despite the very sophisticated look of the covers, don’t expect the interior to be filled with stuffy prose or wordy instructions. Instead, you’ll find lots of colorful illustrations, straightforward advice, and tons of tips to devour before bedtime.
As a parent who really doesn’t understand what all this talk about Creepers, mods, or the Ender Dragon means, I find that this series gives me a quick way for me to ramp up on the lingo without having to do any building on my own. Though I have a feeling that with Microsoft’s recent purchase of Mojang, there will be a whole lot more people joining the Minecraft world soon.
You will find the four-book Minecraft, the Essential Handbook, Combat Handbook, Construction Handbook, and Redstone Handbook, at our affiliate Amazon. We’ve also seen them at our kids’ Scholastic Book Fairs.
And don’t miss all our favorite Minecraft picks, from Minecraft birthday party ideas and Minecraft gifts for kids to cool Minecraft t-shirts for kids. Yes we’re Minecraft crazy around here.
The only problem is that Minecraft is constantly updating. It’d be cool if they could make this into an e-book, and update it along with minecraft (sort of like the wiki, but in e-book form, with more pictures)
What MTsteel suggests would be great. I write Minecraft Fiction books for kids ages 7-10 and even after a year in publication, some of our illustrations have become outdated already as new Mods are added to the game weekly. Sadly the publishers of these books want to make them and move on to the next book, so you won’t see that type of functionality in an ebook anytime soon, as cool as it would be.