Building a Minecraft City: Build Like a Pro! (Dummies Junior)

Five stars

I figured this out in Kindergarten so you shouldn't get this book because it's too basic. I doubt the author even plays Minecraft because he said the sparks can catch your house on fire but the sparks in the game are only for animation!I've had Minecraft for a long time and sparks have never caught anything on fire! I honestly regret getting this book but I'm thankful I borrowed it from our library!

Only once receiving the book, does it say inside that it is for the PC, and not for ipad. Also was delivered with some sticky residue on it.

does he even play minecraft cause all of the building designs are like:hey i am so pro but i dont play minecraft so i am nooob

A larger print would have been nice.My 8 year old grandson was so excited to receive this copy. He needed some help to read this but the subject was interesting enough for him to try on his own!

This is one of the ‘for dummies,’ series books, but aimed at children, rather than adults. It is a more manageable, normal paperback size, but with good quality paper and colourful pages. My daughter, who is ten, plays Minecraft and this book takes you through everything – from registering an account to play the game, starting out and understanding controls, gathering materials and on to actual building.There are various building projects in this book – building a dream home, building a city and building city attractions, such as fountains, water slides, multiple story buildings and roller coasters. My daughter has been playing for a while, so she is not a complete novice, but this gave her some good ideas and she used it to build a roller coaster, which she had not tried before. I thought the way that the book showed screen shots was very useful, giving your child a real picture of what they will see when playing.I think this is a good buy for children first starting out in Minecraft, as well as giving children who are more familiar with the game new ideas.

As a gamer I have never really understood the appeal of Minecraft, but then I was never a LEGO fan either as a child. This block building game has sparked the imagination of millions of children, so much so that it can sustain books about it. 'Building a Minecraft City' is a Dummies Junior book that explores some of the basics of the game and helps you to develop your own city. Like the adult versions of the books, this outing suffers a little from the mere format of being on paper. Getting across even the relatively simple 'programming' of Minecraft on paper is not that easy and the limited size of the pages does have an effect. The information that Dr Sarah Guthals is telling you is good, just that it is pretty limited.This book also suffers from the market it finds itself in. Not only are there great resources on the internet, but other books that do the same thing, but better. The Mojang books in particular are excellent and have full colour page pull out showing you exactly what to do. Comparing Dummies Junior to those books lets you see how limited the Dummies collection is. There is also an issue with who the target audience is. The various projects in this book are a little uninspiring so advanced players will not find anything new here. Therefore, it is the beginner and the novice and although Guthals does a good job of covering the basics, most players will find themselves best learning by doing.For a Minecraft fanatic, I can imagine that any book on the subject would bring some joy, but in this case they will probably have achieved everything inside already. The age of the coding book is drawing to an end, but those that survive will be ones that cover basic stuff that you can quickly glance at. Here you get some of the basics, but nothing that will improve on just getting on with playing the game.

A simple introduction to creating buildings and cities in Mincraft, aimed at younger audiences. This book takes readers from downloading and installing Minecraft through planning and creating your first structure, and finally on to using some of the typed commands to quickly create or copy things.There are lots of screenshots illustrating exactly what is going on at each step, and short and simple text that will be easy for young audiences to follow. Throughout the book any differences between Minecraft PC and Minecraft PE are highlighted, meaning this book is suitable for use with either.Unfortunately a few of the screen shots have come out a bit dark, making them hard to see. The explanation of the types codes could do with a bit more detail and examples, and would greatly benefit from either a quick list of other commands or some pointers of where else to look for more information. In the final project redstone is used to create a powered "rollercoaster", but lacking any proper explanation I can imagine the new players that this book is clearly aimed at being confused to what redstone is and how it works!A very quick introduction to Minecraft that actually would have been better as a "tips and hacks" book for experienced players, or a more detailed beginners guide.

I am a total Minecraft novice, but my 10 year old grandon is a massive fan. He loved this book. It is up the the usuall great standard of the For Dummies books, with very clear and detailed instructions, excellent diagrams and child-friendly language and useage. Even I could understand it clearly and I've never even looked at Minecraft. It is logical and takes everything step by step, carefully ensuring the instructions and the concepts are taken on board. What I liked about it, apart from the IT experience it brings, is that it gets children thinking about logistics and consequences of both actions and inactions. And I think they are great lifeskills for anyone. Amd my grandson is just thrilled to bits and is working his way through the book's projects one at a time, having a ball.