Benny Billiau used to hate reading.
He didn't struggle with comprehension, but he couldn't find anything that captured his attention for more than 10, maybe 20, minutes at a time according to his parents, Rob and Kristin.
About three years ago, though, Benny's attitude toward reading suddenly changed. The magical book that finally hooked the reading-averse 9-year-old? A story based on Minecraft, the open-world, exploration and resource-gathering video game enjoyed by millions of players of all ages.
Then, another problem arose. Benny's imagination was now so fully captured, Rob and Kristin could barely get him to stop reading. He was breezing through the books, finishing several a day, and quickly ran out of material. That's when his parents had an idea: What if they wrote their own Minecraft stories for Benny?
It was spring 2020, the start of the pandemic, and Rob had just lost his job working in restaurant sales. He'd always enjoyed writing, though, and even self-published a sci-fi trilogy for adults some years before.
"We were like, we're not just going to watch shows all day, let's do something together," Kristin recalls. "So let's sit down and write a book that you would want to read."
The Billiau's two eldest children, 13-year-old Reagan and now 11-year-old Benny, had always wanted to play Minecraft together, too, so the family teamed up to start exploring the blocky world filled with explosive Creepers, adorable animal companions, and deep, dark, ore-filled mines.
"We started playing at the very beginning of COVID, because one of my best friends had told me a lot about it, and I really wanted to play it," Reagan says. "So we were like, well, if we can play together that's a way to connect."
"We've always been very cautious about any online games," Kristin adds. "But in Minecraft you can invite people, so when we learned that, and school immediately got shut down, that was when we finally let them because it was actually where they could still play with their friends and interact. And immediately they became obsessed, and we were writing the books months later."
With inspiration from these play sessions, the Billiaus named their new series The Accidental Minecraft Family. Their first three chapter books, aimed for kids ages 8-12, were published that fall under their collective pen name, Pixel Ate.
"We put them on Amazon and, I mean, it didn't even take that long — they went wild," Kristin says.
The series is now up to 34 installments, with a new book releasing each month.
Book one of The Accidental Minecraft Family opens with its protagonists, the Smith family, waking up inside a new "seed." In Minecraft lingo, this is the world map that's randomly generated when you start a new game in survival mode. In the game, players must collect resources to then craft items like tools, armor and shelter while staving off attacks from the game's nighttime enemy "mobs," like skeleton archers, zombies, Creepers and spooky Endermen.
Mom, Dad, Kate, Jack and the family cat, Bruce, are suddenly thrust into figuring out how to navigate this strange, pixelated landscape. The characters are stand-ins for Rob, Kristin, Reagan and Benny. For lots of kid-level comic relief, Bruce is always causing mischief, getting into sticky situations and producing super-stinky farts.
On Facebook: Pixel Ate Books
Web: pixelatebooks.com
Amazon: Pixel Ate
"Benny loves ninjas and weapons and fighting and stuff, and Reagan, when she plays Minecraft, she's making farms and doing horse stuff," Kristin says. "And I'm very anti-violence and like, 'Everyone needs to be kind,' and [Rob's] into barbecue and dad jokes. So we just went with that. And it's funny, because we get emails and messages daily, and kids all the time say, 'You guys act just like my parents would if we went into the game!'"
In addition to coming up with fun plot points they think other kids would want to read, Benny and Reagan are the first readers of each new installment in The Accidental Minecraft Family, acting as quality control for the schemes Rob dreams up.
"The kids, they've got all their stories, and then I can be like, 'Hey, how do I do this?' or 'Can you make this in here?' and then have them go and try to duplicate what I want to have happen in the books," Rob says. "It's so neat."
The Billiaus have been so successful with the books, which are available in paperback ($8 each) and for Kindle ($4 each), that Rob and Kristin were able to transition full time to book writing, a gig that fully supports their family of seven (the three youngest children are ages 4, 6 and 8) living in northwest Spokane.
While The Accidental Minecraft Family books aren't official Minecraft products, the Microsoft-owned game allows its fans to make derivative content including mods, or custom add-ons.
"Part of the reason I think Minecraft has lasted this long is that they have an open artistic license, which the original purpose was for people to be able to make mods for the game," Kristin says. "But we're not the only people who write Minecraft books. And all of these things — the YouTubers, the books — that just pours into this culture and makes it bigger and stronger."
Last year, the Billiaus introduced a second Minecraft-inspired series called Hatchamobs, which takes inspiration from another game widely loved by kids: Pokémon.
"If you go anywhere and you observe kids, I feel like they're either wearing Minecraft shirts or Pokémon shirts, and so we were like 'How can we mesh the two?' and actually it's been really, really popular," Kristin says.
Now up to six titles, Hatchamobs is set inside a Minecraft-like world where some creatures can attain powerful battle skills and abilities while being nurtured by their handlers.
A third series for slightly older kids launched in late 2022, called Videogame Agents, Rob describes as kind of like the film Men in Black, but instead of aliens, video game characters have invaded our reality and a team of elite gamer kids is tasked with saving the world.
The Accidental Minecraft Family continues to be the Billiau's most popular project, with fans reaching out regularly to share their positive feedback. Some have even written their own fanfiction inspired by the series, while others created a wiki for the series' characters and plot points.
While writing books is now a successful, fulfilling career to which every family member contributes, Rob and Kristin remain true to their initial goal of captivating and inspiring reluctant readers just like Benny once was.
With that in mind, they begin each book of The Accidental Minecraft Family with this preface:
"Here's the deal. Some kids seem to love reading and others just don't. But the secret is, everyone can love reading. It's true. All it takes is finding the right book. We hope it's these. But more than that, we hope whatever it is, you find it. Because reading is the best way to explore other worlds, stand in other's shoes, and learn about things you would otherwise never get to experience. Keep reading until you find your book. And then never stop." ♦
