From Gamers to Readers: A Guest Post from Author Danica Davidson

Let’s say your kids are hooked on a video game like Minecraft. During dinner they talk about what they built that day, in school they talk about the zombies they fought, and when they look at clouds they point out which ones look like Minecraft clouds. There are a lot of kids obsessed with Minecraft, but don’t roll your eyes. Just as the game Minecraft leaves the possibilities of playing up to you, Minecraft can inspire you inside and outside of the game. I write adventure novels for kids that take place as if Minecraft is real, so I know about the literacy angle that can go with the video game.
It’s not as strange as it might sound at first. Video games are a popular past-time, and there’s been an increasing interest in teachers using some video games in the classroom for educational means, especially for purposes of math, science and coding. I’ve even interviewed the educators of MinecraftEDU here at the Barnes & Noble Kids Blog. So…what about video games and literacy?

Just under three years ago, my book Escape from the Overworld came out, detailing the adventures of Stevie, an 11-year-old boy who lives in Minecraft and accidentally discovers a portal to Earth, where he befriends a creative and bullied 11-year-old girl named Maison. In the next five books in the series (Attack on the Overworld, The Rise of Herobrine, Down into the Nether, The Armies of Herobrine and Battle with the Wither) Stevie and Maison do everything from stopping cyberbullies from turning Minecraft to eternal night to getting the world to come together to stop the evil villain Herobrine. Because the books deal with both fun fantasy and real world kid issues, they’ve been spotlighted by Forbes, NPR, School Library Journal, Sci-Fi Magazine and other publications. I often hear from parents who say, “My kids don’t like to read, but they can’t put these books down. They want more.”
My first series came out as a box set November 7, and the spinoff series (which still stars Stevie and Maison, but has them on new adventures and against new villains) also arrived in November with Adventure Against the Endermen. Five more books will follow in the spinoff series, coming out every two months.

I love hearing from parents and kids who enjoy these books. Most people like to read, and when kids say they don’t, I find that’s usually because they either need more help learning the basics of reading, or they haven’t found books that speak to them. If Minecraft speaks to them, there are many books out there, mine and others, ranging from how-to guides to novels to comic books. Often when kids find books that click with them, they want to search for more books and more writers and more topics. In my books, I want to include all the chapter-cliffhangers I can, to keep up with a video game’s exciting pace, while also including heartfelt messages about friends and family and fun storylines to give it added depth. Check out your local Barnes & Noble or browse their options online. You might be surprised by a new world of kids’ books you find.
Adventure Against the Endermen is on B&N bookshelves now!