The Lego Book is really two books packaged together, and I’m going to treat them as separate entities, reviewing the main book (The Lego Book) this week, with a follow up review of Standing Small the next time. For any fan of Lego, this is truly ‘must-have’ package, beautiful hardcover books in a nice collectors box. But more than that, my kids really loved these books – each had a favorite – and I’ll talk more about that after the break.

The Lego Book is an extensive look at the entire history of the company and the products it has sold. It starts with their very early toys – things that do not resemble Lego at all – and eventually getting to the point when the Lego interchangeable bricks were first introduced. The early chapters are like going to a Lego museum, with bright colorful pictures and just enough detail to keep the reader interested without becoming boring. Many of the same techniques were used in this book as were present in the Lego Star Wars Visual Dictionary – like the use of timelines to show product evolution and little trivia aspects called out on each page. There are also pictures of Lego sets and designs that are probably nearly lost to history, as well as classic ones that will remind any fan of their own youth playing with Lego.

But the bulk of the book is actually devoted to the many Lego Play Themes that have come out over the years – starting with Space, Castle and City and moving on to include all sorts of movie properties, Bionicle, spies, racers and even something for the youngest Lego fans. This was the part my 5-year-old loved, and the reason he comes back to this book again and again. There are about 100 pages worth of potential ideas crammed into the pictures from these themes – all sorts of things that he can try and build for himself. I mentioned this in my review of the Lego Star Wars Visual Dictionary, but these books are like the catalogs of old were, a way to inspire children to try and build it for themselves. There are 6 pages devoted to Lego Star Wars, highlighting a few sets that were not as big a part of the aforementioned Lego Star Wars Visual Dictionary – but there is far more to learn about the Lego Star Wars theme from the latter. There are also a couple of pages for Lego Indiana Jones, as well as some future plans for a couple of themes.

Finally the book moves out of the Lego toys and into the other things like their Legoland parks and the design that goes behind them as well as fan models, the Lego Universe MMO, other Lego merchandise, and so much more my review couldn’t possibly cover it all without going on and on for pages. As a long time fan of Lego, I feel like this book was made for me – it’s about as fun as you can get reading about Lego instead of playing with Lego. I learned a lot about the company from the early part of the book, my older son loves to go back to the main theme part, and we both now want to go see Legoland – so I’d call the book a big success. This is the kind of book that makes for a great gift for a Lego fan, and I definitely recommend it.