The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Laboratory: Build, Program, and Experiment with Five Wicked Cool Robots!

Gr 6 Up—This informative guide to the LEGO EV3 Mindstorms kit provides clear directions for building and programming five advanced robots. In order to find this book useful, readers must already own the LEGO EV3 Mindstorms kit; author Benedettelli provides a chart of pieces in the appendix that readers should acquire if they own different versions of Mindstorms kits. Tech-savvy students will find the projects engrossing, but be forewarned that this text is not for novice Mindstorms users or those new to robotics. Black-and-white drawings may prove challenging for some to compare with real life colored LEGOs. Readers are treated to a comic narrative throughout the book that mimics the book's progress, which can help break up the tedious nature of instructional text and drawings, though they are more entertaining than informative. Benedettelli painstakingly describes how to manipulate the kits and their myriad parts and does not assume that the reader will have access to a computer, helpfully describing how to program without one. A good addition for schools serving students on robotics or LEGO teams, but this guide may not find wide readership in most public libraries.—Amy M. Laughlin, Darien Library, CT