Minecraft Woodsword Chronicles – Deep Dive!

Nick Eliopulos's Minecraft Woodsword Chronicles Deep Dive is an underwater adventure for 7 year olds about five friends who follow a treasure map to the bottom of the sea.

What happens

It's the third Woodsword Chronicles book. Harper, Po, Jodi, Ash and Morgan go to Woodsword Middle School, where their science teacher Doc has made some very special VR headsets. Put them on and the friends aren't just playing Minecraft. They're living it, blocky hands and all.

It opens on a moonlit beach. The gang are waiting for baby sea turtles to hatch (Jodi has already decided they'll be adorable). Then the zombies arrive. Harper gets blown across the sand by a creeper, and her first question is whether the goggles are wired into her nerves!

In an old shipwreck they find a map with a big red X and a few potions for breathing underwater. Morgan thinks it's all a bit too convenient. Could it be a trap? The others are desperate to go, and in the end he agrees.

So they row across the ocean for days, run from phantoms and jump into the sea. Ash's way of making an air pocket on the seabed is brilliant. She fills a glass room with wool and sets fire to it. Your reader will probably gasp out loud.

Back in the real world, Doc is growing coral in tanks in the school basement, and the whole class is helping. Then a piece of Harper's coral seems to vanish. And suddenly kids all over school are wearing coral necklaces.

You get a turn inside each friend's head. Po does pirate voices in his rowing boat. Jodi wonders if Doc might secretly be from Atlantis. Harper feels she let everyone down underwater, so she reads about the ocean all night instead of doing her maths homework (we've all been there).

Minecraft fans will love spotting the sea pickles and the mooshrooms. If your reader doesn't play, Morgan and Ash explain anything new.

It's worth knowing that the friends feel it when they're hurt, and the phantoms are properly creepy, with bones poking through their skin. Harper also gets very upset that coral reefs are dying as the oceans warm. A child who worries about the planet will feel that with her, though the coral project is full of hope.

What to read next

The friends talk about earlier adventures as they go, so it's best read in order. If your reader is new to the gang, start them at the beginning with Into the Game, where Ash is the new girl at Woodsword Middle and Doc first hands round the goggles.