Minecraft Stonesword Saga 4 – To Bee, or Not to Bee!

Minecraft: To Bee, Or Not to Bee is a buzzing adventure for 8 year olds about a swarm of bees that might hold the key to fixing a broken game world.

What happens

Harper and the gang don't just play Minecraft. Thanks to special goggles made by their science teacher, Doc, they can go inside it. And that world is in trouble. There's a rip in the sky that keeps growing, and they're hunting for the scattered pieces of their friend, the Evoker King, to put him back together.

This time the clue leads them to a flower forest, where the bees fly together into the shape of a person and start trying to say something. Then, thanks to one of Jodi and Po's more questionable ideas, lightning sets the forest on fire.

Back in the real world, a beekeeper leaves a hive at their local library and the students promise to look after it. Then the bees start getting sick.

It's a lovely mix. Real bee facts sit right alongside proper Minecraft know-how. Did you know honeybees dance to tell each other where the flowers are? And if your reader plays the game, they'll enjoy spotting things they know, like enchanting a pickaxe with Silk Touch to save a nest.

The friends are all very different, and that's where the fun is. Po wears a bee skin and makes terrible bee jokes. Jodi wants to save every animal she meets. Theo is very blunt about foxes eating rabbits. Harper worries about the planet (don't we all know a Harper?).

There's one small, sad moment when a real bee dies and the kids give him a funeral in a matchbox. It's gentle and actually quite sweet.

The gang have already been on this hunt for a while before this book starts. They fill you in quickly, so it's easy enough to pick up, but it isn't the start of their story.

What to read next

If they can't get enough of this crew, The Golem’s Game sends Morgan into the Nether on his own, with Field Day looming back at school.