Read, You Must: Even MORE Little Golden Books

The Skywalker Saga is now complete in Little Golden Book form! 

With the recent release of the Little Golden Book adaption of The Rise of Skywalker, it is now possible to read the entire saga as part of this classic children's book series.

The interior art is by Alan Batson (We Are the Resistance, I Am a Pilot, The Last Jedi), with a cover by Caleb Meurer (The Force Awakens, A New Hope). For some reason no author is credited for this book unlike the previous Star Wars Golden Book titles.

In the typical retro cartoonish art style of the previous books, The Rise of Skywalker retells the events of the film in a fun and kid-friendly way.

With this release, young fans can now enjoy reading all nine Skywalker saga "episodes" as well as Solo. The only Star Wars film to date that has not been adapted to this series is Rogue One. 
 

Also out now: The Mandalorian: This Is the Way Little Golden Book! Written by Christopher Nicholas and Illustrated by Shane Clester (I Am a Padawan), The most exciting Disney+ series gets its own picture book. There are more cool The Mandalorian books coming for young readers, but this appears to be the first one available.

Click the links above to see more fun Little Golden Books Star Wars adventures!

Read, You Must: Best Books of 2016!

With only weeks left in 2016 it’s time to go back and revisit our favourite Star Wars books from the past 11.5 months. It’s been a fantastic year for Star Wars books for kids (and we haven't even seen the Rogue One books yet!) but some really stand out...

Our pick for BEST BOOK 2016!

Best of the Year: Star Wars: The Original Trilogy (A Graphic Novel) ! This book gets our top honour for a number of reasons. It is accessible to the widest age range, it is faithful to the movies yet fun and creative in its own ways, and it's just really cool! Read our review here, add it to your list and also look forward to the Prequel Trilogy graphic novel coming in 2017!

Micheal Kogge’s adaptation of Star Wars: The Force Awakens A Junior Novel is an entertaining and fast-paced version of the movie, including a few moments not seen onscreen. Some grown-ups even prefer it to the “adult” adaptation. Relive the story in this great retelling.

Intended for the teenage YA crowd, Ahsoka by E K Johnston fills the gaps for fans of Anakin’s former apprentice between her departure from the Jedi Order (in The Clone Wars) to her involvement in the Rebellion (Star Wars Rebels). 

 

Star Wars Complete Locations is an amazingly detailed overview of the fascinating places and spaces of the Star Wars movies. Read our review here.

In 2015, Random House re-launched Star Wars “Little Golden Books” with fantastic retro artwork and age-appropriate adaptations of the first 6 movies. They continued the series into 2016 with The Force Awakens and new titles like I am a Princess & I am a Sith. The series is going strong and hopefully we can look forward to Rogue One titles too!

A last-minute addition to this list is Princess Leia: Royal Rebel, a chapter-book biography of Leia that gathers all the most up-to-date info on the Rebel leader into one story. Look for a Vader book in this series in 2017!

Star Wars: Tales from a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Aliens vol. 1 didn’t get the attention it deserved. This middle-grade collection of short stories is full of weird and wonderful moments. Landry Q. Walker’s dives deep into a few of the background characters of The Force Awakens. Give this one another look!

Updated and/or Expanded books

DK’s amazing Star Wars: Year by Year was revised in 2016 making either version absolute must-haves for a Star Wars fan family. Pop culture shapes Star Wars and Star Wars shapes pop culture in a fun, accessible, visual and factual feast for almost any aged fan to enjoy.

Star Wars Character Encyclopedia, specifically expanded to include plenty of The Force Awakens chatacters, this book is light on details but a great quick reference for a LOT of Star Wars characters.

A late addition to the list Star Wars Galactic Maps! Released in the final days of 2016 this book is really worth exploring!

 

Honourable Mentions

Jedi Academy: A New Class, ABC-3PO, LEGO Star Wars Chronicles of the Force, The Amazing Book of Star Wars.

Not quite 2016: Much like what we’ll see next week and beyond for Rogue One, a lot of great books came out right at the end of December 2015 to tie-in with The Force Awakens.

What was your favourite Star Wars book of 2016? Did we miss your favourites? Comment below!

The Force Awakens Retold Many Ways

With young readers in mind, several recent books have retold the entire story of Star Wars: The Force Awakens!

Tailored to various ages and reading levels, each has a slightly different perspective on events seen in the film. Many fans will want to read them all!

For the youngest readers, Little Golden Books has just released its The Force Awakens book to go along with the many other recent Little Golden Books Star Wars titles (Reviews here and here). The story is brisk and the art is kid-friendly, cartoony and very retro-cool! This is a fun addition to any collection. It is adapted by Christopher Nicholas and illustrated by Caleb Meurer and Micky Rose.

Speaking of retro-cool, read-along books have been around since they came with little vinyl records, then cassettes and eventually CDs. You can enjoy The Force Awakens Read-Along Storybook and CD just fine without the CD: Elizabeth Schaefer condenses the events into a quick read and Brian Rood's illustrations capture the key scenes of the story. However, the CD really expands the experience with music, sound effects, and dialogue right from the movie.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens storybook - also written by Elizabeth Schaefer - really lets the artwork shine as it's almost a coffee-table book of Brian Rood's amazing art. Some same images from the Read-Along book and several other Early Readers appear here along with many, many more pictures - some not seen elsewhere. Schaefer has more room to tell the story in detail here too. Together they make this book a real treasure!

The most in-depth version for young readers is the middle-grade chapter book Star Wars: The Force Awakens A Junior Novel. Author Michael Kogge retells the movie and even adds a few new moments and scenes that help connect the tale with the book Before the Awakening. It is a very entertaining and enjoyable version of the story. The drama, excitement and humour are all here!

However or wherever you are - May the Force Awakens Be With You! 

Update: Scholastic Books' LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens is also available now, and a lot of fun!
 

Read, You Must: MORE Star Wars Little Golden Books!

In follow-up to the wonderful Little Golden Books adaptions of the first six Star Wars movies (isn’t it awesome to be able to say “the first six Star Wars movies” now??) comes three brand-new picture books in the series: I Am A Jedi, I Am A Pilot and I Am A Droid.

Written by Christopher Nicholas and illustrated with paintings by Alan Batson, Ron Cohee and Chris Kennett these three books focus on different character types found in the Star Wars movies. All three have classic retro-styled artwork and use examples from throughout ALL SEVEN films (again, so cool to say!). 

Each book features age-appropriate vocabulary to compare and contrast character sizes, shapes, emotions and roles in the universe.

The books are a lot of fun and ideal for parent-child read-along times. It’s wonderful to see new The Force Awakens characters like Poe Dameron and BB-8 alongside Darth Maul and Mace Windu, not to mention plenty of Luke, Han & Chewbacca.

This delightful series will continue later this year with I Am A Sith. Apparently there is also one coming in July called I Am A Princess. It would be great to see one called “I Am A LEADER” centred on Padmé, Leia (aka General Organa), Mon Mothma and Hera from Star Wars Rebels. Of course, Rey needs to be in one of these books too! 

Coming Soon!

For fans of the movie adaptations, yes there’s a The Force Awakens Little Golden Book coming too!

Publisher’s recommendation: Ages 2 - 5