Children’s Stories
“Minecraft: Mobs in the Mansion” is out NOW!
Time is a construct. However, it’s OUR construct. (“Ours” as a society, I mean.) So as we use this imperfect system called a “calendar” to mark our time here on this tainted blue orb we call Earth, I wanted to wish all of you a Happy New Year!
And not to turn these totally warm and earnest new year wishes into a blatant narcissistic plug for a new project, BUT – how to say this non-narcissistically? – I have some news to share:
I wrote a Minecraft children’s book called Mobs in the Mansion, which was published today by Penguin Random House. It was illustrated by the amazing Alan Batson. Here’s the official publisher description of the book:
Journey into the world of Minecraft in this Step 3 Step into Reading, the only official leveled reader series based on Minecraft, one of the world’s best-selling video games!
Minecraft® is one of the best-selling video games of all time! And now learning to read has never been more fun for players of the game ages 4 to 7. They’ll get a great introduction to the game’s most mysterious biomes when two players, Emmy and Birch–and their tame wolf Byte–set out on an epic adventure to explore a dark Minecraft mansion!
And if you want to know more:
Check out the book’s page on the Penguin Random House site.
Check out the Amazon page for the book.
Last but definitely not least, feel free to check out some of the other books I’ve written for Penguin Random House.
I Wrote One of the Stories In Yoto’s 5-Minute Holiday Stories Collection!
Happy Holidays! Hey, speaking of holidays, guess what? I wrote a Hanukkah story for Yoto’s 5-Minute Holiday Stories collection, which is out NOW!
The story I wrote is called “The Dreidel Thief”! In it, Allison plays detective as she tries to find out who took her family’s dreidel. Will she solve this mystery? Download the story or purchase the story card to find out!
Here’s Yoto’s official description of the 5-Minute Holiday Stories collection:
Marvel at the magic of the holiday season in these five stories about winter celebrations: Diwali, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s.
Experience the magic of the season with our heartwarming collection of winter holiday stories: help twins Gautam and Trevir choose the perfect Diwali gift for their Dadima, join Detective Allison as she hunts for the thief who took her family’s dreidel, find a last-minute Christmas tree on Christmas Eve with Bif the Bear, go on a Kwanzaa-themed scavenger hunt with Tia and Tyreke, and help Bella the New Year’s Eve ball countdown to the New Year!,,These stories are guaranteed to fill your heart with the spirit of the winter holidays.
Written by Joe Vitale, Taeryn Booker, Arie Kaplan, and Sanjeev Sirpal
But wait, there’s more…
I have also written two Christmas-themed children’s books, both of which came out earlier this year. The first one is The Gremlins Little Golden Book, which was illustrated by Meg Dunn. It’s out now from Penguin Random House. As you may have guessed, The Gremlins LGB is an adaptation of the classic 1984 film Gremlins.
And the second one is The Nightmare Before Christmas Paper Models Book, which is out now from Thunder Bay Press. This book is filled with behind-the-scenes anecdotes and trivia about the making of the classic 1993 movie The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Back to School, Spidey-Style!
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I wrote a Lilo & Stitch activity book called The Adventures of YOU & Stitch!
It will be available from Scholastic starting tomorrow, September 1st, 2023, just in time for the 2023-2024 school year.
But I also wrote two other Scholastic books that will be available starting tomorrow.
One is a Spidey and His Amazing Friends board book titled The Great Food Truck Caper, which was illustrated by Shane Clester. *
And the other one is The Spider-Man Comictivity Book, which I co-wrote. That book is a sort of a hybrid. It’s part comic book and part activity book. Steve Foxe wrote the “comic book” sections, and I wrote the “activity book” sections. And the “comic book” sections were illustrated by Claudio Sciarrone (pencils) and Valentina Taddeo (colors).
All three of these books will only be available for distribution through the school market. In other words, they’ll be exclusively available through Scholastic Reading Events, so you won’t be able to find them on Amazon.
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* NOTE: Previously, Shane and I collaborated on an Avengers Little Golden Book called The Threat of Thanos (which I wrote and Shane illustrated). That book was published by Penguin Random House in 2018.