We grew up in those circles of conservative Christianity that presumed Dungeons & Dragons was evil, due primarily to the word “dragons,” even though most people we knew had no firsthand knowledge of it.  As role-playing games (RPGs) in general have become more popular, these things have also become more familiar, and we’ve discovered that Dungeons & Dragons essentially boils down to fantasy fiction that you write as you go along.  I live in a household of writers, so this is a good fit for us, and everyone enjoys it to some extent, down to the 5-year-old.  (It’s also worth noting that because the players are writing their own story as they go, the tone of your game will depend a lot on who you play with.  We play as a household, so our family’s worldview shapes our game.)

The folks that created D&D have come out with two new books for the littlest RPG fans, The ABCs of D&D and The 123s of D&D.  These are full of whimsical illustrations that feature the types of fantasy creatures that characterize D&D, but in a somewhat “cartoonified” style that makes them youthful and approachable for young children.  (Even at that, though, if you have very sensitive children, you might want to skip these, because they include some of the “bad guys.”)

The ABCs of D&D

The ABCs of D&D uses a variety of D&D-themed concepts to illustrate each letter.  Some are characters (G for goblins), but many are more general game concepts, such as A for adventure and Q for quest.

(I know X is always a question with alphabet books!  X here is for “XP,” which is the D&D abbreviation for “experience points.”)

I do have two concerns with this book.  One is minor and one is not so minor.  The minor concern is that S is for “ship.”  That does not seem like a smart choice, since the word doesn’t start with an S sound.  That’s potentially confusing for children just learning the alphabet.  There are thousands of words that start with S, so I’m not sure why they chose that one.

My bigger concern is the illustration for wisdom.  It features two children and another creature in traditional eastern meditation postures.  I understand that “wisdom” is probably a difficult concept to illustrate, but I really wish they’d chosen something different.  (Nothing in the game made us connect the “wisdom” trait to this type of eastern meditation.  Wisdom is just…wisdom.)  In all honesty, I’m not sure we would have bought the book if we’d seen this beforehand, but we will probably just use it as a talking point with our children.

Something I really appreciate about the illustrations is that the children in the story are dressed up.  You can see just from the cover illustration that the “elf” is even wearing fake ears.  I think this is valuable for helping children understand the distinction between reality and fiction, and how when we play our characters in the game, we’re just pretending.

This might be more useful for introducing young players to D&D than for introducing them to the alphabet.

The 123s of D&D

The 123s of D&D likewise uses D&D concepts for counting.  The overall style of the text is a bit different in this one, though. Rather than being a collection of concepts related only by their connection to D&D, this one is told in the form of a story.  It begins with 1 Dungeon Master  and 2 heroes and walks through a brief synopsis of their quest, ending at 10.

The illustrations don’t make the counted items overtly obvious.  That could be either a negative or a positive, depending on how you look at it.  On on the one hand, you really can’t just look at most of the pages and see at a glance “six” or “nine,” or whatever.  On the other hand, this could be an even more effective tool for counting the items, since they sometimes have to look a little harder for the last one.

This one has a more “magic-y” tone, overall, than The ABCs of D&D, so if you’re on the fence about these as far as that goes, you might be uncomfortable with this.  I would also say this one is a lot “scarier” for sensitive kids, with snarling goblins, liches, and other creepy-looking bad guys.

Because counting from 1-10 doesn’t take many pages, this one also has a mini bestiary at the end, which is basically a “dictionary of beasts.”  It contains 1-line descriptions of some of the creatures found in this story, as well as some others.

The ABCs of D&D is, in my opinion, considerably “lighter” than this one, overall.

One little detail some readers might particularly appreciate is that the illustrations seem to depict a mixed-ethnicity family.

These could make a fun gift for kids who are too young to join in when their parents/older siblings are playing the game, and want to feel like they’re “enjoying D&D” too.