Minecraft Stonesword Saga 1 – Crack in the Code!

Nick Eliopulos's Crack in the Code is a Minecraft adventure for 7 year olds about a new member of the team whose secret tinkering causes very big trouble.

What happens

Five friends at Woodsword Middle School play Minecraft in a very unusual way. Their science teacher, Doc, has souped up some VR goggles, so they go right inside the game, monsters and all.

Theo is the newest member of the group. He's great with code and desperate to fit in. Their friend the Evoker King, an AI who lives in their game, has turned to stone, and Theo wants to be the one who fixes him.

The trouble is, he's been adding his own mods to the game without telling anyone. And when the team tries to move the stone Evoker King, something goes badly wrong. There's a crack, a flash and a bang, and something growls in the smoke before stomping off into the forest.

Is it Theo's fault? Morgan is pretty sure it is.

That's the real heart of the book. It's about being the new kid in a group that already has its own jokes and unspoken rules. Theo tries SO hard (he even makes everyone matching team T-shirts in a colour Po calls booger green). Morgan just can't warm to him.

When Theo overhears exactly what Morgan thinks of him, it's a painful moment. Plenty of children will know how both of them feel.

There's lots of fun around the edges too. Doc's escaped caterpillars have turned the computer lab into a butterfly jungle, so the club has moved across the road to the library. And two of their teachers are having a very silly row about coffee.

Minecraft fans will love the details (Silk Touch pickaxes, enchanting tables and an enderman who really hates being stared at). Children who don't play will still follow along, because the friendships do most of the work.

The friends have been playing together for a while before this book begins, so there's a little catching up to do at the start.

What to read next

If they like the idea of a gadget that isn't ready yet pulling kids into a video game, try Level Up, where Flo ignores a whole pile of warning signs in her mum's workshop.