This article was written by Tom Burns for Brightly.
If you have a kid, there’s a 70% chance there’s a Minecraft video on right now. Minecraft is one of the most popular video games in the world, and one of its biggest icons is Stampy Cat (a.k.a. Joseph Garrett), the jovial creator of a Minecraft video empire. Kids LOVE watching people play Minecraft and Stampy is one of the most viewed YouTube accounts of all time. (If you’ve ever heard an excited British man yelling “HELLO!” from your child’s room, no need to worry. They’re just watching a Stampy video.)
In January 2016, Stampy Cat released his first book — appropriately titled Stampy’s Lovely Book — which was cause for celebration for his millions of devoted fans and showed us that, even though Minecraft is all about digital worlds, the game has a growing presence in the publishing world as well. This January, Stampy Cat is back with his second book, Stick with Stampy, filled with jokes, activities, and games for those who want to keep on having fun with Stampy and Minecraft. With that (and the game’s continued popularity) in mind, we put together this quick guide to the wide world of Minecraft books.
Note to Parents: If you’re struggling to understand what a Creeper or a Ghast is, you might want to check out some of these titles too.
Books Every Minecraft Fan Needs on Their Shelf
by Stephanie Milton, Paul Soares, and Jordan Maron
Any kid who’s ever been to a school book fair is more than familiar with the wide range of Minecraft guidebooks available. The best (and most ubiquitous) are the Minecraft Handbooks, guides that offer wonderful introductions to the game itself and that are officially sanctioned by Mojang, the game’s publisher. There are smaller editions that focus exclusively on construction or combat, but the big Essential Handbook collects them all.
by Stephanie Milton
Have you ever heard of the Survivors? They're a secret group of Minecraft experts who have managed to survive the game since the days of Alpha, and The Survivors' Book of Secrets is their collective knowledge on how to play on Survival mode. With tips on how to set up a solid base and successfully defeat a crazy mob, this pocket-sized survival guide is a great gift for kids just getting into the game. It may just save their (Minecraft) life!
by Craig Jelley
Now any kid can be king of the castle! This step-by-step guide helps players design and build their own fortress, including everything from the turrets and throne rooms all the way down to the dungeons. The "exploded" diagrams show readers how the blocks fit together, as well as where they go and in what order. The book also offers ideas on how to customize your fortress, making it great for children who love to build but struggle to come up with their own ideas from scratch. Plus, fun facts about medieval times give this read an educational twist!
by Alex Wiltshire
If you want to know just about EVERYTHING about the game, in exhaustive, coffee-table-book detail, you can’t pass up Minecraft: Blockopedia by Alex Wiltshire, an enormous encyclopedia of all things Mojang, which is actually designed in an unusual hexagonal format that beautifully reflects the iconic Minecraft aesthetic.
by Michael Lummis
While the handbooks are the only “official” publications from Mojang, there are many, many “unofficial” publications related to all things Minecraft. Gamers looking for some more advanced tips and strategies might find what they’re looking for in Build, Discover, Survive!, a guidebook that gets much, much further into the tactical weeds than the handbooks, as does The Big Book of Building: Everything Minecraft.
To view the complete list of Minecraft reads, visit Brightly.
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