Minecraft Woodsword Chronicles – Into the Game

Nick Eliopulos's Into the Game is a Minecraft adventure for 7 year olds about a group of classmates who put on some very odd goggles and find themselves standing inside the game.

What happens

It's the first Woodsword Chronicles book, and it starts with Ash Kapoor stuck on the stairs of yet another new school. It's her third in three years, all because of her mum's job. She has a Wildling Scout sash covered in badges, and she taps one for luck before anything scary (starting school definitely counts).

Ash loves Minecraft too. But Morgan Mercado thinks Minecraft is HIS thing, and he doesn't wave back.

Then his little sister Jodi picks Ash first in gym, breaking the deal she and Morgan have always had. Ash and Jodi's exploding creeper piñata showers the science fair in sweets. So Morgan decides his team's volcano needs to go bigger. Can you guess how that goes? (Ms Minerva ends up with red foam dripping from her hair.)

After the clean-up, their science teacher, Doc Culpepper, asks Morgan, Harper and Po to test her homemade VR goggles, and Jodi tags along. They pick Survival mode. There's a flash of light, and they're staring at their own blocky hands.

It's every Minecraft player's dream, right up until the sun starts to set. Nobody can find a way to log off. And somewhere out there, a zombie is groaning.

You don't need to know the game, because the friends explain it to each other as they go. Harper works out that blinking twice opens your inventory. She punches a tree, builds a crafting table and then makes a shovel when she meant to make a sword.

The chapters swap between the five of them, so you get Ash's nerves, Jodi's wild theories about Doc and Po's wizard voice ("forsooth!"). Po uses a wheelchair in real life. Inside the game he can feel the ground under his feet, and the first thing he does is jump up and down.

Underneath the zombies, it's a story about being the new kid. Morgan's scared someone cooler will take his friends. Ash has brought her whole tree house from California, her old friends' initials and all. Both feelings are very easy to recognise.

What to read next

If they'd like another pair of friends who get zapped into a video game and have to play their way home, try Level Up by Tom Nicoll. Flo ignores every warning sign in her mum's workshop and lands on a moon in the middle of a tank battle, with her best friend Max respawning every few seconds.