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Ah Toy Fair, a riot of plastic, wood, metal, resin and MAGIC! As usual, The Beat pounded the halls of the JAvits Center and beyodnd to bring you only the FRESHEST toys and playthings. The day started at 7 am with the Lego event. As that time of day there isn’t much to remember but […]

Danica Davidson started writing at age three and never stopped. Before selling her first book, she wrote for such places as MTV, CNN, The Onion and Los Angeles Times. Among other publications, she was recently featured by Forbes for her Minecraft writing. She’s represented by the James Fitzgerald Agency. Attack Of The Overworld is the second book in Danica's Minecraft series, which is geared toward ages 7-12.

Also read Danica's recent post on the BNKids blog about Minecraft, Cyberbullying and Girl Power and her Cynsations interview.

You can find Danica at DanicaDavidson.com and on Twitter at @DanicaDavidson.

Synopsis of ATTACK ON THE OVERWORLD (Skyhorse, 2015): Attack on the Overworld is the sequel to Escape From the Overworld, where Minecraft character Stevie finds a portal to our world and befriends a girl named Maison. Now cyberbullies have hacked the portal and let themselves into the Minecraft world, turning it into eternal night and transforming people into zombies.

Q. Could you please take a photo of something in your office and tell us the story behind it?

Since I adopted my dog Porthos from the local shelter a couple years ago, he’s been a constant companion.

(Bonus points if you get his name reference: he’s named after the beagle Porthos in Star Trek: Enterprise, who in turn is named after Porthos from The Three Musketeers. I know . . . I’m a nerd.) He always wants to be with me, so my boyfriend thought of placing a dog bed under my writing desk. Porthos likes to sleep by my feet while I’m writing and we go out for walks together when I’m brainstorming. I also like to bring him along to book signings of the book store owner says it’s okay. He is the most literary dog I know!

Q. What advice do you have for young writers and/or illustrators?

The most common advice is usually to keep writing/reading/drawing, and I give that, too. But another piece of advice I wish I’d gotten is that it’s normal to get TONS of rejections before you get published, and not only should you not give up, but you should not let it devastate you. Young writers are told to expect rejection, but I was never told to expect as much rejection as I’ve gotten, and sometimes it really got me down.

I remember a few years back, when I was swimming in rejection letters, an editor at a magazine told me something along the lines of, “I once met a famous writer who got TEN rejection letters. TEN! So don’t feel so bad.” I was thinking, “I passed ten rejections years and years ago. If ten is the definition of ‘a lot,’ I not only feel bad, but now I feel even worse.” Another writer told me he thought it was time to give up after 35 rejections. Oh, I’d looong passed 35 rejections by then, but I was too embarrassed to say it because I thought he’d tell me to give it up at that point and I couldn’t bear to hear that.

The hardest part is getting your foot in the door. But I kept working, kept networking, kept writing and kept submitting, and in this past year and a half, I’ve sold six books. And I’m ready to write more.

Some people are surprised to see me sell six books while in my twenties, but I tell them I didn’t just start doing this. I’ve been submitting and getting rejected since I was eleven. Ever since I was little I’ve known this is what I wanted to do in my life, and if that’s the case for you, follow that voice with hard work, persistence and a sense of humor.

Q. What are you excited about right now?

I’m excited to see more of my books come out and see where writing takes me next. I have two books out now: Escape from the Overworld and Attack on the Overworld, both Minecraft novels. The third Minecraft novel, The Rise of Herobrine, is out in April. My book Manga Art For Beginners, which teaches how to draw in a manga style, is out in March, and I worked with an amazing artist named Melanie Westin for that one. I've written a graphic novel for a major children's franchise that will be out in the fall. I don’t know how much I can say yet, but there should be a big announcement on that one soon and it’s a franchise everyone knows. And I’m about to get started on my fourth Minecraft book, which will be titled Down Into the Nether, and is scheduled to come out in June. This is what I love to do, and I want to write all different kinds of books for all different ages!

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For more interviews, see my Inkygirl Interview Archive.

1. Christmas Trolls by Jan Brett: always our first book of the season. My younger three love it every bit as much as my older three did. I’m right there with them—the troll voices are so much fun to read aloud, and there’s a bit at the end that chokes me up every single time. Plus we have a red wooden horse exactly like the one in the book!

(Why has Amazon started slapping a copyright notice on book covers? They’re fair use.)

2. I really appreciate the downloadable lock-screen calendar Inkwell Press provides for free every month. What a nice gift! I like being able to turn on my phone and see what day it is without clicking to my actual calendar. I’m lazy that way. If you sign up for their email list, Inkwell will send links to each month’s wallpaper options—lock screen, home screen background, and desktop. Pretty nifty.

3. I mentioned this on Facebook and Twitter last night, but for those who missed it: 50 Incredible Minecraft Seeds You Must Try is free on Kindle right now and it’s pretty darn cool. It includes seeds for PC, Pocket Edition, XBox, etc. My kids and I were pretty excited to explore some of the Pocket Edition maps today…there’s one with four villages squished together and another with a mountain village that looks like something out of Howling Fjord. I ran around the mountain one for a while and it was a hoot. The blacksmith shop is high up on a rocky crag above the rest of the town.

4. The Jacquie Lawson Advent Calendar! We look forward to this every year. It’s an animated Advent calendar with some new little piece of story to click on every day. I’m glad my friend Phoebe reminded me to download it today. (Costs $4.) This year’s theme is “Victorian Christmas,” which, you know, had me at hello.

5. Periscope: I’ve done about one scope a week since I started. I never know if I should post them here! You can view all my replay videos at katch.me/melissawiley, but I could upload them here on the blog, too, if it would be helpful. Actually, I suppose I ought to start posting a list of links for stuff I mention in each scope, since show-and-tell seems to be what I wind up doing every time. Okay, there’s a plan (but not for tonight). Yesterday’s was called “A quick Monday hello” and is pretty chatty. Sometimes I have a structured topic, and other times I’m just there to gab.

Telltale Games rolls out the redstone carpet for the Minecraft Community in LA

Or rather, his 10-year-old daughter Clara does. In commentary on his cover for this week’s New Yorker the Building Stories master—and the graphic novelist whose name is most often connected to the word “genius— discusses the game the way any parent over a child in the 4-14 range does.

Clara has spent hours, days, weeks of the past two years building and making navigable block worlds fuelled from the spun-off fizz of her accreting consciousness: giant ice-cream-layered auditoriums linked to narrow fifty-foot-high hallways over glass-covered lava streams, stairs that descend to underground classrooms, frozen floating wingless airplanes, and my favorite, the tasteful redwood-and-glass “writer’s retreat.” (It has a small pool.) She made a meadow of beds for my wife—a high-school teacher who craves unconsciousness—and a roller coaster to take her there. Though Clara mostly “plays” Minecraft by herself, the game allows her friends to drop into these worlds, too, and I’ve even spent some strange virtual afternoons as a floating block-self, guided by my angelic block-hammer-wielding block-daughter, zipping around a dreamscape that feels, really, less like life and maybe more like death, but in a sweet sort of way. If architecture somehow mirrors the spaces we carve in our memories and make in our minds, then something pretty interesting is going on here.

…I think this Barnes & Noble has the right idea:

Attack! Boss! Cheat Code! + LEGO + Minecraft? Sure — I’m OK with that.

Oh, and + Frozen? That looks pretty good, too.

Today’s post was first published in Mamalode on October 8th and promoted on Twitter by Brain,Child Magazine.  It was an interesting – and somewhat controversial -  topic that I asked Jennifer if I could feature it here.  We’d both welcome your feedback.

Dear Bubbe,
I never intended to do it; really. One second it was a quivering icon, the next it was gone. Just. Like. Magic.

Honestly, it brought on a smile. I’m not trying to be mean. Chalk it up to a Mommy epiphany, a moment of clarity. The day I deleted Minecraft, I liberated myself and you of a virtual, addictive burden. Pressing that shaky, little X ushered you back to real life. That made me happy.

In the beginning, I was a fan.
Compared to the other choices the video game world has to offer, I could see why you wanted to tap the piggy bank to invest in one that requires players to scavenge for resources, earn survival treasure, design landscapes, construct villages, and defend against intruders. As a lifelong rock collector, forager of sorts, visual thinker, and creative designer it appealed to many of your natural sensibilities.

A popular topic of discussion at summer camp and later in the school cafeteria, Minecraft was also something to bond over with friends. Game play and conversations led to art projects, dissecting handbooks, sharing song parodies, and pretend play. It was a vehicle to stretch your imagination, apply ingenuity, problem solve, and socialize. So like organized sports, enrichment programs, and play dates, this Mommy approved video game quickly became outsourcing I could justify.

Not only did I feel like I was doing right by your development; it kept you busy, safe, in an earshot and out of my hair all at the same time. My afternoon was still my own and I didn’t necessarily have to entertain or engage with you all that much.
Then I began to notice screen time and giving up the screen made you cranky and angry. You responded less to Dad and me, ignored guests, and blew off friends playing outside. Preferred downtime was spent in the basement; alone in a Minecraft cave.
Even with the game shut off, I was living with a one note Bubbe on Enderman autopilot. It was all you wanted to talk, draw, write, and think about. And when The Skootch got access, twice the misery ensued.      

So in an effort to find balance, we set up a schedule to earn and limit play time.

It didn’t work.

The timer chime was drowned out daily by your pleading, sometimes screaming voice, “I wasn’t done; I just found iron, I need a diamond sword, a creeper destroyed my supplies and all I have left is a raw chicken!”
It was only after the drama escalated to the point where I found myself ripping the IPad from your grip and yelling back, “Who cares; it’s not real!” that I knew we needed a big change.
All craziness combined led me to Deletion Day.

In the future, I’m not ruling out screen time completely; that would make me a hypocrite but Minecraft was sucking wind from your childhood and it needed to go away.
Proof of my decision came the morning after Deletion Day when I read an article about Steve Jobs; the man who invented the tablet on which you play. He was brilliant for many reasons, particularly in his choice to limit his own children’s access to technology.
A few hours later, you played with months old Minecraft Legos for the first time and said, “Mom, this is fun. I never would have known if I kept playing video games.” I then knew we were heading in a better direction.
Your Lego comment got me thinking more about fun and parent approved outsourcing, both today and when I was your age.

Like you, I kept busy after school and like you, my mother gravitated toward outsourcing. She didn’t have insight into child development or the value of play, I’m just pretty sure that when she came home from work, she didn’t want to see my face until dinner.
But I didn’t play video games, do gobs of after school activities, or have scheduled dates to see friends.
I was let out of the house and off the leash; in an earshot of only the person on the bike next to me and left in an unstructured and by modern standards, unsafe environment to play pickup games with neighboring kids, defend myself against obnoxious villagers, explore the nearby pond, collect crystals from a stream, build forts, and roam through the woods.
Call it my own, private Minecraft. No IPad needed.
And it was good fun.

Growing up isn’t easy but parenting isn’t simple. You can’t always get what you want when you want it, and I can’t always do what makes my life easier. In an effort to raise you to be a thinking, well adjusted, connected, kind, happy, independent human being I sometimes have to check myself and then love you enough to say enough.
Your childhood is just out of my reach, but it is not yet out of yours. Embrace. Enjoy. Experience. Take time in the real world to discover unchartered lands, dig caves, build cities, mix it up with the villagers, and have adventures. You’ll be glad you did.

Now go. I’ll see you at dinner.            
I Love You,
Mom

Jennifer can be reached at: http://www.redsaidwhat.com
Twitter: @redsaidwhatblog
Facebook page: Red said what?

I knew as soon as I saw how P.J. Hoover was promoting her latest book that she would be a great addition to the Games & Books & Q&A series of interviews with gaming professionals about books and with children’s and YA authors about video games. She discusses her neato approach below (yes, I just said “neato”), but first let me get you caught up on P.J.’s career so far.

Central Texas is fertile ground both for technology companies and for books for young readers, and P.J. has been part of both of those worlds. She made the switch from electrical engineer to author, debuting with the Forgotten Worlds trilogy. Last year saw the publication of her dystopian YA novel, Solstice (Tor Teen), and this year she’s followed up with her middle-grade adventure novel Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life (Starscape).

On a personal note, having gotten an early glimpse at the manuscript for this book six years ago, let me just say how satisfying it is to see Tut arrive on bookstore shelves — and how glad I am that P.J. took the time to talk with me about gaming.

CB: What do you remember about the first video game you ever played?

PJH: You mean besides how quickly I could go through a roll of quarters? The thing I remember most about those early games was what a fantastic job they did transporting me to another place, even with their limited graphics. Maybe it was the way the arcade machine blocked out the sides, but when I played Jungle Hunt at the skating rink, I was there, swinging on the vines, swimming underwater. I also remember how much better some kids were than me. I’m pretty sure their parents gave them more quarters than mine gave me. :-)

CB: What games did you play the most when you were a kid? What did you love about them?

PJH: Games I played the absolute most were the ones I had at home (because there was no roll of quarters required). On the Commodore 64, I had Jumpman, M.U.L.E., Q*bert, and Wolfenstein. Q*bert I adored because I was actually better than anyone I knew at it. I loved how, if I executed certain patterns, I would evade all the obstacles. And Wolfenstein I loved because it had a whole story behind the game. I was trapped in a castle full of bad guys and I had to escape! Also, I was good at it, too. I escaped the castle almost every time. Achtung!

CB: What role do games play in your life today?

PJH: With two kids at home (ages 10 and 13), one of our favorite things to do together is to play games. Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U is a great family time activity (actually the whole Wii mentality is very family based). One of my kids still plays Wizard101 with me (imagine World of Warcraft meets Harry Potter). I’m proud to admit that I am a Level 71 Fire Wizard in the game (which translates to many hours played). I’m also trying to improve my Portal 2 skills on the Xbox (the cake is a lie). So to say video games play a role in my life today is an understatement. I encourage parents to take time out of their lives and play games with their kids. They’re actually a ton of fun.

I see how much time kids want to be on the computer, and given my love of gaming, I’ve developed some fun gaming tie-ins for Tut. There’s a Minecraft server developed for the book where kids can explore both ancient Egypt and modern-day Washington, D.C, unlocking hidden clues as they go. There’s also an old-school 10-level video game, written using Scratch (a fun programming platform created by MIT). The game requires basic evasion, puzzle solving, and decoding. (Cheats are available on my website.)

I had to delete Candy Crush from my phone because I was playing far too much. :-)

I expect to continue this series through the October publication of my book Attack! Boss! Cheat Code! A Gamer’s Alphabet. If there’s anyone in the gamer or kidlit camp that you’d love to see me feature in upcoming posts in this series, please drop me a line or tweet at me or just leave a message in the comments.

Step 1: Seriously restrict your pre-teen boy’s computer time for two weeks on Minecraft. Give him an allotted time, to be on the computer and don’t waiver. Step 2: After two weeks, ask him if he’d like to earn a half-hour more (if all his work is done). Step 3: When he exuberantly says YES – look around the house for things for him to do, and tell him to come back to you when he’s finished. Step 4: Walk around the house and review his handiwork. Applaud his effort if everything is completed and done well. Step 4: Give him the extra time he’s earned. (Set a timer!)

#eagertodochores

A new survey from the Games and Learning Publishing Council sheds light on just how commonplace games have become in today’s classrooms. Among the findings:

• Among K-8 teachers surveyed who use digital games in teaching, 55% have students play games at least weekly
• 72% typically use a desktop or laptop computer for gaming
• Nearly half believe that low-performing students benefit the most from digital games
• Word of mouth is the biggest influence when selecting games

So what can librarians take away from this data?

First, it’s important to think about what’s not in the report. The survey only included K-8 teachers, but gaming is a huge part of many teens’ lives. As the YALSABlog reported in 2008, a Pew Research Internet Project report found that fully 97% of teens ages 12-17 play digital games. Those teens were using computers, but nearly half were also using a mobile device.

As schools relax restrictions on mobile devices in classrooms and laptops and tablets become as common as calculators and pencils, how can librarians support the gaming needs of teachers and students? Whether we’re in school libraries or programming for teens at public libraries, where does gaming fit into library services?

The Games and Learning report reveals that many teachers let their own gaming experiences and preferences guide them when it comes to using digital games with students. I can certainly attest to that; when I first introduced gaming nights at my high school, I brought my own consoles and games, then joined forces with another teacher to expand our selections. If you’re new to gaming with teens, you may be more comfortable starting with a familiar game or selection of games.

Erin Daly, Youth Services Coordinator at Chicopee Public Library, puts it this way: “We probably need to spend some time playing games ourselves and thinking about how to incorporate games into our classrooms and libraries. We really don’t know what works until we play.”

“Gaming, like everything, requires curation: we need to pick the best, most interesting things to share. Good thing that’s pretty much what librarians do best. (Gamers’ advisory, if you will). In a classroom, ‘the best’ includes the way in which the game is relevant to the curriculum standards. In the public library ‘the best’ is the game that engages the player’s interest and makes them think.”

Who knows why author Melissa Wiley‘s children chose Minecraft as the vehicle through which to educate her about a major scientist? What matters is that they did, and that the whole thing is adorable:

One day I accidentally fed [Minecraft dogs] Darwin and Newton too many pork chops at the same time, and you know what that means: a puppy. I couldn’t wait for this new pooch to grow up, so I could see what name the girls would give it.

When I came home this afternoon, half dead after a skeleton ambush, the pup was waiting beside the front door, all grown up and sporting a new blue collar. Her name was Annie, the hover-text informed me. I was a little surprised that the girls hadn’t continued the scientist theme.

Shows what I know.

The parental affection is just as obvious, though expressed just a little bit differently, in James Parker’s recent essay in The Atlantic, “The Game That Conquered the World“:

Can it be true that in Minecraft, to apply a line of Philip Larkin’s, how we live measures our own nature? An octopus’s garden, a whirling hall of knives … Choose, minecrafter. Build. It’s all you. My son, to my astonishment, is building an international airport. Me, I’ve killed a couple of cows. I made a start on a crafting table, and then gave up. And now I sit in obscurity, in my roofless house of dirt.

And in case you’re wondering, the “M” in my upcoming book Attack! Boss! Cheat Code! A Gamer’s Alphabet does not stand for Minecraft. But the game adored by Parker and Wiley’s offspring is in there somewhere. My own 10-year-old wouldn’t have it any other way.

I mentioned that the kids and I share a Minecraft world. Its name is Calpurnia, after a favorite book. When I got a dog in the game, Rose offered to name it for me. The next time I logged in, “Darwin” was running around my attic—Darwin because of Calpurnia Tate, get it?

Then I wound up with a second dog. It ran around my house nameless for a day or two; then one day I returned home from a grueling shift at the ruined castle we’re building in the mushroom forest, and there, wagging its tail alongside Darwin, was “Newton,” newly monikered by Beanie. It seems I’m raising a bunch of scientist dogs, which is fine by me.

One day I accidentally fed both Darwin and Newton too many pork chops at the same time, and you know what that means: a puppy. I couldn’t wait for this new pooch to grow up, so I could see what name the girls would give it.

When I came home this afternoon, half dead after a skeleton ambush, the pup was waiting beside the front door, all grown up and sporting a new blue collar. Her name was Annie, the hover-text informed me. I was a little surprised that the girls hadn’t continued the scientist theme.

Shows what I know.

Rose, evidently aware of this gap in my education, had helpfully left some signage on the living-room carpet:

The dog’s name is Annie ’cause of Annie Jump Cannon, who
was one of the greatest female scientists; she organized the
stars. We still use her system today. Also, she was deaf.

I learned a lot more about Annie (the human, not the canine) after I logged off. She featured in a recent episode of Cosmos and my girls were quite impressed by her accomplishments. Her lifetime spanned the period between the Civil War and World War II, and as Rose explained, she was instrumental in the creation of the star classification system that is still in use today.

The girls have yet to account for the pig in my living room.

Rose put up some NO TRESPASSING signs outside her house in the Minecraft world the kids and I share. My favorite was the addendum: NONE OF THIS NONSENSE.

Well, of course I couldn’t resist a throwdown like that. A LITTLE NONSENSE NOW AND THEN, I wrote back, when she wasn’t looking, IS RELISHED BY THE WISEST MEN.

And her reply, proving the student has surpassed the teacher: I AM NO MAN.

That’s my girl.

Has your library ventured into the realm of Minecraft?  Are you looking for new ideas to serve your tween patrons?  I encourage you to consider investing in a Minecraftedu account.  This digital environment offers your tweens and the librarians serving them a wealth of programming options.

Why spend money for an edu account? As a school librarian the edu account gives me control over the Minecraft experiences I offer my students (including the “freeze students” feature). It allows me to custom build what will happen in this space.  If you’re ready to step into the role of digital media mentor this is a prime opportunity to do so.  Tweens will come to Minecraft programming (you will have a waiting list!).  Many of them will bring a wealth of previous experiences. Others will come with little to no knowledge of how to get around. As a librarian using a Minecraftedu account you can offer this wide range of kids a similar enriching experience.

Minecraftedu teacher & librarian control panel (http://www.graphite.org/game/minecraftedu)

One of the things I enjoy about this space is the collaborative potential.

The first group expedition is through a tutorial world. The entire class enters this space (using their real names) and begins to explore. We challenge them to help each other navigate through the world using only the text chat  (improving keyboarding skills has never been this fun!). Tweens’ willingness to share their expertise with each other is limitless.

 Our options for programming also seem boundless. The next adventure for 5th graders will be a building project.  They have researched the architecture of ancient civilizations in social studies and will build Minecraft models of these structures. This is more than a fancy diorama. Tweens will assume the identity of an ancient citizen and provide tours to classmates. Could your public library offer this opportunity in collaboration with local schools?

When we greet new classes in the fall this will become a team building space. Games like capture the flag can make a digital migration. Book clubs could construct a story scape based on a book they have read.  Fan fiction can be acted out in 3D and recorded for sharing.  Tweens are using digital media of all kinds. Their creative potential is at the ready. Librarians can be valuable mentors if we take the leap.

It’s the game that’s taking over the world and has people totally obsessed. It’s like building with LEGO bricks, becoming an engineer, and a little bit of killing zombies. You know what I’m talking about: MINECRAFT.

If you play Minecraft, you will like today’s Would You Rather Quiz. And if not, these choices might intrigue you anyway! So jump in. Would you rather . . .

1. Be attacked by a zombie OR fall off a bottomless pit?

2. Drink a sugar potion to run faster OR a golden carrot potion to see better in the dark?

3. Eat a poison potato OR rotten flesh?

4. Start digging a mine OR start building a farm?

5. Get trapped in a dungeon OR burned by lava?

6. Build a secret underwater glass hideout OR build a roller coaster?

7. Play Minecraft OR watch videos of people playing Minecraft?

Let us know your answers in the Comments below. Before nightfall . . . and the Creepers come out.

—Ratha, STACKS Writer

“You play Minecraft at work?” Sometimes my friends get jealous, so I explain: “Yeah, I play Minecraft at work, but I’m usually running around the lab helping people, and there’s more to it than just playing the game – it’s about building community.” Playing Minecraft at the library is a way to get kids in the door and create connections. That I’m a fan of Minecraft outside of work serves as another layer of common ground.

I’ve been playing Minecraft in our computer lab with groups of kids and teens for about two years now. We’ve done a lot of different things with the game: free play, adventure maps, working together to survive, player vs. player battles, redstone circuits, pixel art. At times we’ve played every other week, sometimes once a month, sometimes once over the summer. I’ve gotten to know my Minecraft kids pretty well. I know that they are creative and knowledgeable about the details of the game. I know who loves to explore, who is a fearless monster fighter, who can give me a porkchop when my food meter is low, and who knows how to build a shelter where no zombie will ever find us. And they know me this way as well. They know I probably have a secret shelter hidden somewhere, that if they need a place to hide they can come in, and that my avatar is probably standing there doing nothing because I left myself logged in while I got up to help someone at their computer.

By providing a space for kids to play, we have explored building communities in the game, and we have created a community outside the game based on our shared interest.

I hear a lot of talk about how Minecraft can be used educationally to teach STEAM skills, executive functioning skills and social skills like sharing and cooperation. I agree that all of these opportunities are available with the game, but the truth is that sometimes in the middle of a program, things can get pretty chaotic. Sometimes I’m just running around the lab trying to help kids learn crafting recipes, or mediating between disputes. I knew I had strong connections with a lot of kids because I know them from Minecraft, but I wasn’t thinking about the way that these connections might go beyond the computer lab until recently.

The other day a couple of my regulars, twin brothers, came in to the Children’s room. I marveled at how tall they were getting. They signed up for the next Minecraft program, next month, near their birthday. They will be 11. I have known them for over a year. In addition to wondering when the next Minecraft program was, they were also looking for books for school. They had reports to write. The topics: roller coasters and locksmiths. We looked for books and I walked them back to the stacks to show them how Dewey Decimal call numbers work. We found some books, but we had to put others on hold from libraries in our consortium. I explained that with a little notice, we could get books that they could use for their projects from libraries across the state. Then, I showed them around the databases.

It turns out roller coaster is two words and locksmith is one. This is something I wasn’t entirely sure about when I went to type in search terms and it gave me a concrete example to show that database searching is specific and you need to try rephrasing your terms when you aren’t finding the information you’re looking for.

I explained how they could access the databases from home and told them they could always call the Children’s Room or send me an email to if they needed more help.

This ten or fifteen minute interaction had a lot of positive outcomes: The twins got the resources they need for their projects as well as an in-depth reference interview from a librarian they know cares about them. I got to see two enthusiastic Minecraft adventurers in the context of fifth grade students. I also got a feeling of satisfaction along the lines of that quote from Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.” Connections made by gaming translated into a connection to the more traditional resources the library has to offer. So, not only do these two kids know I’ve got their backs when there’s a zombie, they know that the library will support their information needs for school projects with a variety of resources.

It was a moment I wanted to share.

Do you have an anecdote about making connections in your library? Share it in the comments!

YALSA Blogger Erin Daly works with babies, teens and every kid in between as the Youth Services Coordinator at the Chicopee Public Library in Western Massachusetts. You can follow her tales of library life and the occasional cat picture on Twitter @ErinCerulean

Are you interested in reading more tween-related posts?  The YALSA Blog and the ALSC Blog both offer information of interest to librarians who work with tweens.

Geeks of all ages rejoice, the full version of Minecraft is out today!  Minecraft creator Notch and the folks at Mojang  are celebrating this release with gamers from around the world at MineCon in Las Vegas today and tomorrow.  MineCon’s impressive agenda includes panels about gaming and sharing with implications that extend beyond Minecraft alone.  The conference will be streaming live thanks to a partnership with IGN. Visit IGN’s Minecraft Event Hub for conference videos and more.

The full version of the game includes all kinds of exciting new features like enchantments, new items, new blocks, and new mobs.  You can check out the full list of updates over at the Minecraft Wiki.

Next up for Minecraft, are versions of the game for XBOX 360, which will debut at MineCon, and a pocket edition that is now available for Android and iOS.

A new partnership between Teacher Gaming, LLC and Mojang to bring Minecraft to schools called MinecraftEdu will make things easier for libraries and schools who want to play and learn with Minecraft.  MinecraftEdu offers discounts for buying licenses for multiple copies of the game and allows organizations to pay with purchase orders. 

To learn more about Minecraft, visit the official website at www.minecraft.net.

My teens were feeling proprietary about their recent creations, so please enjoy this picture of a house built by my friend Ryan.

I’m cheating a little because I haven’t actually played Minecraft with teens on the brand new multiplayer server space I just rented.  But I do play a lot of Minecraft with my friends, I have talked a lot about it with teens, and I am going to offer the game as a regular teen program starting next week.  Here’s what I’m doing to bring Minecraft to the library, and links to some interesting ideas about things you might do with it.

But first, what is Minecraft?

Minecraft is a game where you roam a landscape full of different sorts of blocks that you can move around to build anything you want.  You can dig deep to find different resources, and explore to find a variety of environments.  At night, zombies and other monsters come out, so you need to protect yourself.  The game was created by Swedish programmer Markus Persson, and is being developed by his company Mojang.  It’s still in beta,  so there are new updates all the time.  Minecraft is getting prettier and more involved with each new permutation.

I love this game because it demands creativity.  You have a world, and you can do anything.  It’s even more fun with friends, where in building your world you find yourselves cooperating by sharing resources,  planning building projects,  helping each other and showing off for each other.  I can’t wait to see what happens when I turn my group of teens loose in their new world.

Here’s a video for you to take a look at Minecraft.

Click through for more.

You can buy the game here for $21.95, a discounted price while it’s still in beta.  There is an outdated free version that you might try to see if you want to buy the game.  I also recommend watching YouTube videos or looking at screenshots to get a feel for the environment.

Once you decide to play, your first task is to survive your first night.  You need to find a way to protect yourself from zombies, skeletons, spiders, and other monsters, which in Minecraft parlance we call mobs. Ideally, you want to build yourself a shelter, but in a pinch, just stack yourself up on a tall stack of blocks, dirt or sand will do, and wait for morning.  When the sun comes up you can search for more resources to strengthen your fortifications.

After you’ve tried it out for yourself, or at least done a bit of research, ask your teens about it.  Are they playing Minecraft? Would they like to?  You may find that some of them are already familiar with the game.

To play single player, you can buy one copy of the game, download the launcher to any computer, and let teens sign in with their own accounts.  If you want to play together, you’ll need to set up a multiplayer server. There are instructions for how to host your own server available, which may appeal to some of your technologically inclined teens.  You can also to rent space from a number of services. I’m renting space from Minecraft Box.

You may want to purchase a few copies of the game for your library, so that teens who don’t own the game can play. This might be tricky if you are bound by institutional orders because at this point, Minecraft can only be purchased with a credit card.  It took some repeated queries  for me to get permission to buy the game myself and get reimbursed.

Once you have interested teens, access to the game and a multiplayer server, the possibilities are limited only by your collective imagination.  Plan a city, spread out and work on your own projects, explore the intricacies of the game, or make