First Thoughts on Minecraft

I've been playing around with Minecraft for the last three days or so - not to the exclusion of everything else in my life, but I can see how that could happen! Since I am so new to the game, I only have the beginnings of ideas for how to use Minecraft as a learning opportunity. Here are some of my first thoughts as a player:

Survival Mode

1. Unless you really like to figure out everything on your own, watch a tutorial about how to survive your first night.
2. Be prepared for the adrenaline rush of nightfall and strange creature noises.
3. My daughter and I partnered up: She played the game on our desktop while I used my laptop to research how to accomplish various tasks on the Minecraft Wiki. When we couldn't find charcoal to make torches and had to spend the night in a dark hole, just waiting for morning to come, this was the place that showed us how to make our own charcoal.
4. Making blocks of glass was one of the first things we did. That way we could have a protected view out into the night so we could see when it was daylight again.
5. Even when it is daylight, there may be a spider hovering above your front door. I wish I had a video recording of the first time this happened. Terrifying and hilarious!
6. Here's one of my first hidey holes with my crafting table and furnace - very important!

Creative Mode

1. In this mode, I had access to many different items rather than having to mine and craft my own supplies. It was fun to be able to use whatever I wanted as I built the beginnings of a home under a hill. (Not quite a Hobbit hole...)
2. This mode shows me what I could aspire to do in Survival mode. It shows me something of what is possible.
3. There are monsters about, but they don't attack, so that's nice.
4. Here's one room of my house under the hill:

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I first heard about Ransom Riggs when award-winning author and vlogger John Green shared a video Riggs had posted about his photograph collection. It appears that these photographs played some role in inspiring Riggs to write this book for young adults*.

Jacob is a teenager who was fascinated by photographs of extraordinary children his grandfather showed him when he was young. As Jacob gets older, he dismisses the stories surrounding these photographs as mere fantasy and accepts his ordinary life as the way things really are.

When his grandfather is killed in the woods behind his house, Jacob thinks he sees one of the tentacled monsters that were the villains of those stories. Ensuing nightmares lead to visits to a psychiatrist and a diagnosis of acute stress disorder. To resolve Jacob’s continuing questions, he talks his parents into letting him visit Cairnholm Island, the setting of his grandfather’s stories of peculiar children threatened by monsters.

Readers will get drawn into Jacob’s journey to seek the truth. What he finds is an intriguing and dangerous world with some very peculiar children indeed. Their meeting will cause irreversible changes to the worlds of both Jacob and the children.

• Book trailer 
• Information and the first three chapters

 *Disturbing violence and some profanity

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

Minli is a cheerful and warm-hearted girl, despite the life of poverty that she and her parents lead in their small village in China.  However, her mother’s dissatisfaction with their difficult life and her father’s stories inspire Minli to search for the Old Man in the Moon.  She hopes he will tell her how she can improve her family’s fortune.  On her journey, Minli meets a dragon who cannot fly, a poor boy whose only companion is an ox, a king, and a family who knows the secret to happiness.  Many of these characters share Chinese folktales that the author has rewritten for this book and skillfully woven in with the events of Minli’s journey.

Visit Grace Lin's web site for more information about the book, including a book trailer.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

I love coming to a series a bit late - I don’t have to wait so long for the next book!  Given that the library isn’t open at 11:30 on a Sunday night, I do have to wait a few hours to get the second book in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series.

I just finished City of Bones, in which 15-year-old Clary Fray learns that there is much more to the world, and in fact to her own history, than she ever realized.  This is an extremely difficult book to describe because of its many surprises and plot twists.  Clary discovers the existence of a variety of supernatural folk in the world--demons, vampires, werewolves, etc.--along with humans with special abilities to see and fight these creatures when necessary.  A terrifying call from her mother pulls Clary into the hidden reality of these Downworlders and Shadow Hunters.

In Clary’s search to find her mother, she faces danger, romance, lies, and disturbing truths about the family she never knew.  It is that mix of adventure, flirtation, and shocking revelations, along with a healthy dose of snarky adolescent humor that makes this book so much fun to read.

Generally understood to be a “young adult” book and therefore marketed to teenagers, I think mature sixth-graders would enjoy it.  There is a sprinkling of expletives, mild sensuality, and considerable amounts of violence and gore.  The quality of the story-telling and values of the main character outweigh those factors, in my opinion.

The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick

Image from http://www.rodmanphilbrick.com

Orphan Homer P. Figg is a dandy of a liar. He uses this skill as best he can in a search for his older brother Harold who was sent off to fight in the Civil War.  Along the way, Homer is threatened by slave catchers, discovers a stop on the Underground Railroad, becomes the Amazing Pig Boy in a traveling medicine show, and more.  Will he find his brother before Harold is killed on the battlefield?  Read this book of humor, danger, and history to find out!

Teacher notes: Fun, quick read! Homer has a clear voice full of wonderful expressions.  His adventure engages the reader from beginning to end.  Along the way, readers get a sense of life during the Civil War and the Underground Railroad.  Scholastic has some useful related resources: a video book talk, teacher activity guide about the Underground Railroad, and an interactive students activity about the Underground Railroad.