Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior, An Op Alliance builds on its potential

For a period in most boy’s or young men’s lives, they love Minecraft. Granted there are some girls who enjoy and can craft circles around their Y chromed counterparts, but for the most part in our experience. So for those girls that like ghosts, warriors, creepers, wolves, and more, Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior, An Op Alliance is for you. This is a surprisingly good and effective original graphic novel that fills a void that exists in regards to a literary version for this immensely popular franchise.

Both of our boys went through that phase where everything was Minecraft. The younger one who is nine still has the Minecraft sheets. The older one was also an avid reader and tried to read a series of books that were based in the Minecraft world, but were too advanced for an elementary-aged reader. The cover of those books made those ages want to read them, but they were too wordy and meant for those upper-middle school and older audiences.

It’s the demographic targeting that Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior, An Op Alliance gets so right. On the cover of the book, in big, hand-scrawled writing is ‘graphic novel’. Nobody will confuse this for a chapter book. If those older readers do want to read a chapter book about creepers, ghosts, and crafting then there’s a series that’s custom-made for them.

This graphic novel series on Andrews McMeel Publishing is squarely aimed at elementary-aged readers. It’s an all-age graphic novel that takes place in the world of Minecraft. If your child is five through 12 years old and loves Minecraft then this is your sign.

An Op Alliance is not just random crafting. We meet Runt, a young villager in Villagetown who dreams of being a warrior but has instead been assigned a very common job. Steve is the hero who lives in Villagetown, a place where everyone despises zombies. At the same time, we meet Blurrp, a zombie who lives with other zombies, going to school at night and being taught that villagers need to be attacked.

Runt decides to leave the safety of Villagetown and quickly realizes that he’s on his own out there. Blurrp puts on a cape, in order to protect him from the sun’s rays, and ventures out on his own too. They both want to defy stereotypes and be heroes in their own way and shortly after venturing out into the world, they meet each other.

  

The book is divided into two parts and is equally about friendship and adventure, through a Minecraft lens. It’s a funny story with adventure, instances of true friendship, humor, and action. The graphic novel won’t skew much into middle school, but it’s not supposed to. Those ages have chapter books for Minecraft and this game isn’t as hot with them. This is that elementary school, graphic novel comfort food that those younger ages don’t get enough of.

The text in the book is on a level that those third-graders should be able to easily read it. Second-grade Minecraft fans will be able to read most of the words and then let the illustrations assist them in telling the story. The content is great for ages five through 12 and there’s nothing objectionable that those ages, or even younger, would encounter in the book.

This is one of those graphic novel series that will quickly become the water cooler talk (once COVID is over) for elementary school students. Its narrative elements are enough to support the desire of parents who have young readers who need to read more (but don’t tell them that), and entertaining enough to seamlessly weave those elementary-aged readers into its web.

Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior An Op Alliance is by Pirate Sourcil and available on Andrews McMeel Publishing.

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