Today I would like to show you one of my favorite LEGO books; The LEGO Adventure Book by Megan Rothrock. The book came out recently and so far everyone only has good things to say about it. And for a good reason. The book is big, beautiful and most importantly, full of interesting and inspiring LEGO models. Check it out below! 🙂
Megan, the author of The LEGO Adventure Book, is a former LEGO designer herself, so she knows what LEGO fans like. She takes readers on a tour featuring nearly 200 LEGO models and 25 brick-by-brick instructions. You will learn to build robots, trains, medieval villages, spaceships, airplanes, and much more. In the process she also introduces you to thirteen of some of the most accomplished LEGO builders including Pete Reid (Legoloverman) known for his LEGO Turle Factory, Jon Hall (jonhall18) with his sleek planes, Mark Stafford (Nabii) the robot and mecha designer, Aaron Andrews (DARKspawn) with his wonderful medieval villages, and Katie Walker (Eilonwy77) the queen of beautiful LEGO mosaics.
This LEGO book is divided into 14 chapters, and each chapter features a different LEGO building subjects like LEGO town buildings, LEGO cars, planes, starfighters, medieval villages, dinosaurs, mosaics, trains and LEGO steampunk creations. Each chapter is guided by one of the featured LEGO fans mentioned above. They share their models, building tips and even step-by-step instructions.
Besides the LEGO models themselves, what I like the most about this LEGO book is how nicely the pages are designed. Each page is full of full-color LEGO models, but there is also enough white-space in between to give a nice balance and a fresh look. Any text included is short and sweet; just enough to make the pages friendly and give enough information. Also, this is a hard-cover book, with durable pages, so it can stand up to a lot of use.
I would say that this LEGO book is more for the intermediate to advanced builder. I think most of the models would be too complex for young children, or beginner builders, although they could still get great inspiration and ideas from the book. I have read on Amazon though that even children as young as 8-years-old enjoy the book greatly. So I may be underestimating what beginner LEGO fans can accomplish, but to be on the safe side, I would get this book for someone who is already familiar with LEGO to some extent.
If you would like to add a wonderful book to your LEGO book library for inspiration and learning new techniques, or if you are looking for a great gift for a LEGO fan, this book will surely please! Also, the LEGO Adventure Book is titled as #1, so it seems there is going to be a series. I’m definitely looking forward to more!
The LEGO Adventure book is available on Amazon for less than $15. Here is the direct link: BUY THE LEGO ADVENTURE BOOK. It is also available in a Kindle edition for $10 at the same link. You can also download a PDF version at the publisher’s website for $15. Enjoy! 😛
What do you think? Is this a LEGO book you are planning to pick up? Will it be for yourself, or a gift to someone? And if you have the book already would you like to share your thoughts and opinion? Just use the comment section below. Would love to hear your feedback! 😉
You may also like to check out the LEGO Books section for more inspiring reading materials or select from these recent post below:
UPDATE: Currently the publisher is running a holiday sale for the next 72 hours. It’s 40% off everything (books and ebooks), coupon code is TISTHESEASON. Here’s a link to the deal: http://nostar.ch/holiday_promo
I need to get that! 😛
I asked my library to buy it as soon as I saw it for the first time on The Brothers Brick. They brought it and now I’m going to pick it up from the library soon. It looks awesome! 🙂
You read the Brothers Brick?
I really enjoyed The Lego Ideas Book. How would you say this one differs? Is it worth having both?
Different in that all the designs are done by AFOLs. Incredible techniques are shown.
I really enjoyed the LEGO Ideas Book. How would you say this one differs? Is it worth having both?
(P.S. Double post due to slight identity crisis 😛 )
Gabriel, if you liked the LEGO Ideas Book, you will like this one too. In many ways they are quite similar. The two books are exactly the same size. The LEGO Ideas Book is a little bit more “wordy”. The LEGO Adventure book has less talking, more building. You get introduced to more builders, more projects, more very interesting building techniques. I have both, and I highly recommend both. They very much complement each other. 🙂
Truly awesome book. LOVE the electronic version too.
Yeah, the electronic version is also great! I forgot to mention I have that too. 😉
On a sci-fi convention recently I met a 3-year old kid with a Monster Fighters set, who – the parents claimed – enjoyed building the regular sets. (My first impression was that the dad had bought the set for himself, but he denied it.) So I guess there are some 8-year olds who wouldn’t have any trouble following these instructions.
Hakan, I do agree. Some kids can handle and even enjoy much more advanced sets than what’s recommended for their age-group. This could be the result of being familiar with LEGO already, or just talented with the concept of building. However for kids who never played with LEGO before, the recommended age-range displayed on boxes can be very helpful.
The book features concepts that I would consider more advanced. Again; for a kid who is already into LEGO, it should be no problem to grasp them. But for kids who are new to LEGO, it could be a real challenge. However they may still enjoy the book and get inspiration from it.
And for a 3-year-old to handle a regular LEGO sets, that is very impressive. Most kids that age don’t have the hand-eye coordination to handle regular LEGO bricks, or understand the concept of intricate building techniques. But then again; smart kids are all around us. Building with LEGO could already been in their genes. 😉
Ya, I am under 13, but i could build the 16+ sets 😀
I am very interested in buying The Lego Adventure Book for my grandson who will be 7 in October. He is a Lego fanatic; my concern is, will this book be too advanced for him?
Margaret, the recommended age for the book is 9+. I have all three books in The LEGO Adventure Book series, and I would say that’s pretty accurate. Having said that, the pictures are big, the stories are easy to read, and the building instructions are clear, so a younger child with lots of LEGO experience could probably handle it. It is just that the models are a bit more advanced.
Personally I would recommend The LEGO Ideas Book series for younger children. It is published by DK Publishing, so the quality is very high. The size and format is exactly the same as in The LEGO Adventure Book series – in fact the two series feature the models of many of the same builders. However the models in the LEGO Ideas books are a bit simpler, bit easier to build for younger children, or kids with a smaller LEGO collection. The recommended age for this series is 7-10.
Both The LEGO Adventure Book and The LEGO Ideas Book series got three books each. You can buy any of them, or get the entire series. They are excellent. The latest in The LEGO Ideas Book series is titled LEGO Awesome Ideas. I have reviewed it (along with the latest LEGO Adventure Book) here: http://thebrickblogger.com/2015/12/new-lego-ideas-lego-adventure-books/, and you can find it on Amazon here: http://amzn.to/1TLwFGh
So in summary, I would say that the two series are very similar, and a LEGO fanatic child would be very happy with any of them. However The LEGO Ideas Books are more suited to younger kids and would be “safer” to buy for a 7-year-old. 🙂