Can’t Let Go of LEGO
I can’t let the Best of the Year go by without highlighting LEGO books (I’ve written before about how great the DK LEGO Readers are).
The classic LEGO brick was designed by Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen in the 1940s. Christiansen began to make wooden toys after losing his job, and soon designed an interlocking brick that would mimic the stacking ability of regular blocks, but allow for more creative building possibilities. He named his product “LEGO” after the Danish phrase leg godt, or “play well.”
LEGO has stood the test of time as a building toy with open-ended possibilities. There is no “right” way to play with LEGOs.
To add to the already strong interest, a LEGO movie is coming in February 2014.
It features some pretty great voices, including those of Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson.
Ed Note: Yes, but how could they have not used LEGO master, Eddie Izzard:
There will be tie-ins, of course.
Download the LEGO tie-ins spreadsheet.
For the holiday season, do not miss these three standouts from the LEGO “verse,” beginning with:
Cool Creations in 35 Pieces, Sean Kenney, (Macmillan/Henry Holt YR)
The most recent volume fromrenowned LEGO artist Kenney gives kids step-by-step instructions to make robots, nutty animals and vehicles from steam engines to a jumbo jet.
And, two spectacular volumes from No Starch Press:
LEGO Space: Building the Future, Peter Reid and Tim Goddard, (No Starch Press)
Goddard and Reid have created a coffee table book of a science fiction world completely made of LEGOs. We explore the architecture, technology and life on other planets as we enter the realm of space pirates, battle cruisers, mining camps and more.
Beautiful LEGO, Mike Doyle, (No Starch Press)
You know how those artfully arranged glossy full color shots of food lavishly displayed has been labeled “food porn” ? If I may be so rude, this is LEGO porn. Stylistically arranged LEGO creations lovingly presented to the fandom. As The Horn Book says, “Elevating the preschool building toy to high art, this book’s gorgeous photographs of hundreds of LEGO sculptures … go well beyond anything you’d see at a LEGOLAND theme park.”