Minecraft is probably the most creative video game out there, not in the sense that its creators are creative, but rather, that it is all about creating things, and this is done by constructing novelty out of a relatively simple set of primitives. But to do so, the player needs to know about the building blocks of Minedraft, such as Lava, Fencing, Redstone, Levers, various chest and chest related things, and so on.

Yes, you (or your child) can learn as you go playing the game, watch a few YouTube videos, etc. But if we want to fully enjoy and integrate the Minecraft experience, and help that child (or you?) get in some more reading time, there must be books. For example, the Minecraft: Blockopedia by Alex Wiltshire.

It is a cool book in that it comes very nicely packaged like an iPhone, and it is a six sided blocky thing with a pixelated cover and 300 pages. This is the go to reference for everything you need to know, and probably, can know, about each of the Minecraft block, up through version 1.8,which isn’t even out yet. The blocks are grouped by fundamental type (natural, ores and minerals, plants, and liquids and gasses). Important information like the blast resistance, transparency, and so on are included. The book even covers blocks found only in the Netherlands. Not the ones in Europe. The one in the other dimension.

The book is published by Egmont, which is a children’s book publisher, but it is also a full on Mojang product.