Tales of an 8-Bit Kitten: Lost in the Nether

My son loved this and read it in two days; something unprecedented. He’s read the other 8-Bit titles, and this was one of his favorites. The books strike the right balance between prose and drawings, encouraging a kid to keep reading while not making it seem like too much work. I hope to see many more of the series.

3.5 (but I'm rounding up) :]

Set in the world of Minecraft, this unofficial Minecraft novel starts off with Eeebs playing hide-and-seek with two other kittens. One of his friends claims to have the greatest hiding place and will never be found. Eeebs travels farther than he ever has from home in order to find his friends, only to find himself having entered the Nether against his own mother's warnings of such a place.

The writing is very simple, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. This is cute and accessible for younger readers (perhaps grades 1-4). I personally would line more vocabulary or sentence variety. Not only do children love the Minecraft, but adults too. Also using more sentence variation is a strong sample for younger readers. Writing style aside, the format is very unique. The pages are in color and feature a background of a Minecraft ground cube and various words and phrases are sometimes underlined or appear in different sizes, fonts, and colors to point out various things to the reader. I also really like how there are visuals with this novel. Almost every page (with a few exceptions) has a Minecraft-reminiscent image that shows just what is going on in the world without the author necessarily having to delve into too much imagery. I don't think I will read other unofficial Minecraft novels, but this was cute nonetheless. (Received from NetGalley for an honest review).

My kids are obsessed with Minecraft and my daughter loves cats! This was a cute cat story with a minecraft twist that she just didnt want me to stop reading. We finished the whole thing in one story time.

In Tales of an 8-Bit Kitten: Lost in the Nether: An Unofficial Minecraft Adventure, popular author Cube Kid recounts the story of Eeebs, a kitten with amazing adventures in the world of Minecraft. Eeebs disobeys his mom by playing in the forest, and finds himself in Nether, a scary place with frightening creatures. But helped by a witch, Eeebs gains super powers. Will he be able to save his friends against Endernova's army, the Enderman, who want to rule the Overworld? Readers will page through compulsively to find out!

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

#TalesOfAn8-bitKitten:LostInTheNether #NetGalley

Eeebs is a curious kitten, who has been told to not wander in the forest. But, he ignores his mother's wishes and crosses through a strange glowing portal. When Eeebs ends up in the Nether, with many scary creatures, he finds that he has been changed. After a short time he ends up in trouble and is saved by a Ghast and a witch. When the witch finds that he has the mark, she know that he is special. What could this mark possibly mean? Soon Eeebs finds himself on a quest to save the Overworld. Can he fulfill The Prophecy?

This fun adventure is a great match for those who love the Minecraft world. Grades: 2-7 or ages 7-12

This book is Minecraft fan fiction, which definitely has an audience. I have 8 year old and 6 year old sons and we have listened to the audiobook for “Diary of a Minecraft Alex—Ocelot Adventure”, “Diary of a Dork Steve”, and “Diary of a Zombie Steve”. They are by different authors (I think, it’s hard to tell with the pen names) so I knew what I was in for with these books. I wouldn’t think that kids would find these books interesting, but my active boys listened to the audiobooks silently during the entire time (usually running 1-1.5 hours). If you aren’t familiar with Minecraft you probably won’t like this book and it might not make any sense to you.

This is the story of a kitten in a Minecraft world who is playing with his friends one day and gets separated. His mother has warned him about staying away from a purple light, if he ever comes across it (a portal to the Nether), but he thinks she just doesn’t want him to have fun. When he finds himself chased through the portal to escape a pack of wolves, everything changes. His appearance changes, he makes new friends, and learns about a war about to begin. There begins his adventure.

This book was good, but a little longer and more complicated than I’m used to in this field. The plot was a little confusing and I think it would lose younger readers. There’s a prophecy, a war, strange creatures, and I think it is a little hard for young readers to keep track of. I think this would be best for readers in grades 1-4. There are cool Minecraft-style illustrations on about every other page and the font size changes to stress certain words, which is good for drawing in young readers.

Special thanks to Netgalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest opinion.

So, this is a must have for our library. We have a huge minecraft fan base here and our kids LOVE these. I absolutely love the changes in text, both size and color; good old cognitive dissonance to make sure the kids are paying attention. I love how it encourages kids to step out of the game and use their imaginations to create their own stories. I feel like this sets a great example for kids, why not write fun stories about the games you love?! I play minecraft with my 10 year old son so I love how involved it is with the game, these are things that we can do or attempt to do in our minecraft world! So glad I got a chance to read this and I can't wait for our copy to arrive!