Having four boys who are obsessed with Minecraft, picking up this book, Minecraft: The Shipwreck, was practically a necessity. Author C. B. Lee did a great job of making this entertaining for both those who have played the game while also keeping it interesting enough for those who haven’t yet. Alternating between the main characters’ points of view, we meet three very different teenagers who initially seem to have nothing in common. After being caught trespassing, Tank, Jake, and Emily are thrown together doing community service. As a result, we get to watch their relationship, that begins with annoyance and ambivalence, shift as they are forced to spend the summer together. In what might appear to just be a book about playing video games, these characters also face their own insecurities and various difficulties outside of the group. Relationships are put to the test and the characters are left to decide who and what is most important to them. Leaving us with an unexpected but satisfying ending, Lee wrapped up this 4.5 star book perfectly.

Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy

This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Del Rey

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  None

Note:3 incidents when a character says, “OMG” (just the letters), not tallied.

Violence/Gore:  Many (35) incidents including teenager imagining destroying a real building like he does in Minecraft; verbal threat (in video game); character threatening to beat another up in real life; references to characters dying; reference to cancer; many incidents of characters fighting and dying in a video game (very little detail given).

Sex/Nudity:  One incident of parents holding hands.

Mature Subject Matter:

Death; cancer; theft; shoplifting; bullying.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

None