Review: Minecraft Beginner's Handbook and 2014 Annual

This post could also be titled the day Egmont made JJ whoop for joy! Last Saturday JJ was not in a great mood, he was not sure why but he just was not that cheerful, so I presented to him a couple of gifts and boy did they work.

JJ is 10 years old and absolutely crazy about Minecraft, he has been playing for near on two years now and he would class himself as an expert.  He plays alone and online with friends, they have dedicated servers they play on and he would happily spend hours building virtual worlds and mining and farming to save his life and avoid the monsters!

Minecraft Beginner's Handbook

This A5 hardback book is 80 pages long and packed with information for any new Minecraft player.  JJ tells me they are called Minecraftians but the book tends to refer to players as Minecrafters - who knows, I don't. I have to say I did not find the cover very inspiring but it fits wit the look of Minecraft and JJ instantly recognised it, which I suppose is the important thing.  He has been the absolute envy of loads of his mates at school when he showed them this book.

Despite JJ having played for a couple of years now he tells me there are still a few things in the book that he could learn (such as red and yellow sheep can be bread to make orange sheep - well who knew!) and even if there was not anything he loves having the book anyway. He spend a good few hours in the first day reading his handbook and devouring every word.

It retails at £7.99 which I think is a fair price and a 10 year old can pretty easily save enough pocket money to buy that for themselves.

As you can see the quality of the book is high and the information is accurate. JJ loved that there is loads of input from Minecraft creator Notch and lead game developer Jeb.

I'd say this handbook is a great little tool for parents wanting to learn a bit more about how Minecraft works.

Minecraft Annual 2014

The annual is in traditional format, like the Beano and many others, at A4 size. Again it is a hard-backed and high quality book with 66 pages. There is a range of information covered like step-by-step exciting builds and projects. There are also fun parts which are Minecraft themed but do not require your child to go on their computer or such, things like quizzes, mazes and crafting items.

The annual also retails for £7.99.  Both books are released on 10th October 2013 and are available for pre-order on Amazon.

Then in December another book will also be released - The Redstone Handbook.

Disclosure: We were sent these two books free of charge for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.