Mindstorms: Level 1

Gr 5–8—Clear and well-organized, these books start with enough atomized step-by-step instructions to confidently set up beginners. The projects covered work well when combined with hands-on practice—photos of the EV3 LCD screen and screen captures from the programming software show users exactly what their progress should look like. There's an appreciable leap in complexity between levels two and three, but this does reflect the way that Mindstorms skills level up. By level four, readers who are good enough at Mindstorms that they'll be interested in the topics covered—multitasking, the Gyro Sensor, and data logging—will have probably figured them out for themselves, but seeing instructions laid out in print may inspire kids who are not quite there yet to make that leap. The only caveat is whether these books will become outdated when the EV3 brick or Mindstorms programming software gets updated.