Making a Reader Out of My Son With The Minecraft Essential Handbook and The Redstone Handbook

Like many kids these days, my eight-year-old son is obsessed with Minecraft. He has it on the computer and his iPad so he can play it anywhere. We used to have restrictions on his play time, but now that he’s reading because of the game, the gloves are, for the most part, off.

Scholastic has done what I thought couldn’t be done–they got my son excited about reading by making not one, but two books that make him want to read and teach him at the same time.

The Minecraft Essential Handbook has a lot of basic information on the game. Some of the topics include:

• Short history of Minecraft
• Controls
• Inventory
• Torches
• Shelter
• Food and Heath
• Table of Elements

There are several other “must know” topics.

Even though my son has two years of Minecraft skills under his belt, he still learned something from this book:

“I learned that sheep and other animals can breed. I also learned what all the animals eat.”

He also said that the pictures are easy to follow, and I agree with him on that one.

The Redstone Handbook is my son’s favorite because,

“It has electricity and a lot more stuff, like automatic doors, electrical lights, and canons. The canon didn’t go very well. It only blasted about a block and a half away. So, I built a new canon and it worked.”

A few of the things Minecraft lovers can learn in this title include:

• Redstone Essentials
• Power Sources
• Clock Circuits
• Laur Pit Trap
• Deluxe Lighting Systems

And several community creations.

In the back of The Redstone Handbook, it says that there are two more books coming for the Minecraft world: The Combat Handbook (August 26, 2014) and The Construction Handbook (September 30, 2014). To say that my son is excited to add these books to his Minecraft shelf would be an understatement. I’m equally excited to buy them for him because of how much fun he’s had with the first two books in the series.

The Minecraft Essential Handbook and The Redstone Handbook are must haves for any family with Minecraft-obsessed kids. With the exception of The Fanastic Mr. Fox, my son has never picked up and read a book so fast in his life. And in the words of my son,

“The book belongs to people who play Minecraft, because if they don’t read it, they won’t learn more about Minecraft. If they do pick it up, they will learn more.”

GeekMom received these items for review purposes.