Big News for Young Star Wars Fans!

Star Wars Celebration 2017 has come to an end and over the 4 days in Orlando, Florida fans were treated with plenty to get excited about. Yes, of course the biggest news was the first look at the upcoming movie The Last Jedi (out December 2017). Seeing moments of Rey training, Finn recovering, Leia leading and more were unquestionably the highlight of the weekend. If you haven't yet seen the teaser trailer, view it here. 

In the months up to the December premiere, books, comics and more will be released under the banner "Journey to The Last Jedi".

Nearly every site on the internet will have something to say about the new images, teaser poster and trailer for The Last Jedi, so we're going to focus on a few pieces of news that will be specifically interesting to Star Wars Kidscast readers and listeners:

New Comics!

Comic publisher IDW announced that in September 2017 they will begin publishing Star Wars comic books specifically aimed at younger readers. The Star Wars Adventures will have familiar characters from many eras of our favourite galaxy. 

There have not been Star Wars comics specifically created for younger readers in several years so it's exciting to see that happening again! Here's more information.

Marvel Comics will continue publishing their excellent Teen-rated comics as well. It's a great time to be a Star Wars comics reader!




New Books!

Daring Adventures Volume 1 & 2!

Lucasfilm/Disney Publishing announced several new books for younger readers, including a BB-8 picture book (above), more additions to the World of Reading leveled reader series, a new book called The Legends of Luke Skywalker and a Leia-focused YA novel. As well, there are "Daring Adventures" books to tie directly into the new Forces of Destiny cartoons coming soon!

DK Publishing also announced new titles, including an update to 2015's Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know and new book for tech-minded younglings: Star Wars Coding Projects! 

New TV!

A bittersweet announcement was made regarding Star Wars Rebels - yes, there's a new season of Rebels coming this fall, but it will actually be the final season of the show. What happens to the crew of the Ghost in the next season is anyone's guess but it sure looks like it'll be exciting!

Before we see any more Rebels though, this summer will debut a brand-new animated series of short stories called Star Wars: Forces of Destiny. We wrote about these new shows here. There will also be new toys and books connected with this series too! More on this as announcements are made! Here's a new clip:

Fans of LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures have a second series to look forward to starting May 4. The fun and excitement continues as the Freemakers start to fight in their own way against the Empire! More info on season two is available here.

This is far from a complete list of everything we're excited about from the past few days, but it sure is plenty! More new info on upcoming fun Star Wars stuff is coming soon!

What are you most excited to see that was announced at Celebration? Comment below!

Read, You Must: Princess Leia: Royal Rebel!

If you’ve seen the Star Wars movies then you already know a lot about Princess Leia Organa, later known as General Organa by the time of The Force Awakens. However there’s also plenty of other details of her adventures to be learned through further reading!

A new book in Scholastic’s “Backstories” series, the first Star Wars title in the set, pieces together these tales into one chronological life story.

Princess Leia: Royal Rebel is a 128 page biographical chapter book by Calliope Glass (co-author of ABC-3PO) and illustrated throughout by comic artist Joe Quinones. It’s a great way to catch up on Leia’s official story.

Starting during the Clone Wars era, the story explains - in an age-appropriate way - the dark circumstances of how Leia came to be adopted by Bail and Breha Organa of Alderaan. Glass then moves forward with details of young Leia’s life, details that have been previously revealed over the past few years in Marvel Comics’ Princess Leia series and Leia’s season 2 appearance on Star Wars Rebels.

Young Leia and her family on Alderaan

As she grows into adulthood, the events of Episodes 4, 5 & 6 unfold from Leia’s perspective. Along the way, gaps in time are filled by more adventures from the Marvel comic series and from the middle-grade novel Moving Target.

It’s great to have a book like this because many interested young readers may not be quite ready to tackle Moving Target or to read the Teen-rated comic books yet, but will still want to know what happened outside of the movies.

Marvel's Princess Leia

Little is known about Leia between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, and according to this book, she likes it that way. Privacy is hard to come by for a Princess and a Rebel leader!

What is known is that somewhere in there she and Han Solo married and had one child, Ben Solo, who later turned to the Dark Side and called himself Kylo Ren! Also in that time, Leia was the key leader in forming the Resistance. It’s quite a life she’s had, and nobody knows at this point what events may take place in Episode 8 or beyond!

Leia on a mission between Episode 4 & 5

The story flows well despite the jumps in time as it incorporates the details from different sources. Recent chapter books like Rey’s Story and Finn’s Story have done a similar thing but are limited because they have far less official information available to include.

This book is a little closer to the wonderful biographical middle grade novels Scholastic published a few years ago like The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader and The Life and Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi (both by Ryder Windham, 2008) which also pulled details together from multiple movies and other sources.

Quinones’ many black and white illustrations add to tie the story together. The artwork is somewhat similar to the pictures in the terrific Han Solo “Adventures in Hyperspace” chapter books (2010), also written by Ryder Windham (and also from Scholastic publishing). The cover artwork is by the amazing Phil Noto (illustrator of Moving Target, Weapon of a Jedi, and more!)

It’s great to see Scholastic publishing Star Wars chapter books again, and they picked a fantastic place to start with Princess Leia: Royal Rebel!

(Publisher’s Recommendation: Ages 8 – 12)

Coming soon in this series: Darth Vader: Sith Lord!

October is "Star Wars Reads" Month!

In the past we've enjoyed spreading the word about Star Wars Reads Day, an annual event that has been happening the past few years in October that celebrates Star Wars and reading. What's not to love about that?

This year the day has grown into a MONTH! So for all of October fans around the Galaxy will be celebrating in different ways.

Star Wars Kidscast will be enjoying Star Wars Reads by spotlighting recommended Star Wars books, sharing photos and spreading the word about events on our facebook (@StarWarsKidscast) and Twitter (@SWKidscast). 

What are your favourite Star Wars books? Does your school or library have an event? Do you dress up? Feel free to share your experience! We'd love to hear about it.

Here's the link to this year's Star Wars Reads downloadable pdf activity kit!

Don't forget to use the tag #StarWarsReads in your social media messages!

For more info visit StarWars.com

Happy reading and may the Force be with you! 

Read, You Must: Star Wars Original Trilogy Graphic Novel!

Most Star Wars books are great so it’s hard to review so many of them without being repetitive. I love books and I love Star Wars, so putting them together usually results in something special. Sometimes the books are even fantastic. Occasionally though, a book comes out that really should be on EVERY Star Wars fans’ wish-list. A “must-have”.

Star Wars: The Original Trilogy – A Graphic Novel is a must-have book! It is wonderful.

Star Wars: The Original Trilogy – A Graphic Novel from Disney-Lucasfilm Press is a faithful adaptation of Episodes 4, 5 & 6 (aka The Original Trilogy) into comic form bound in one amazing 208 pg. hardcover collection. It is as suitable for younger Star Wars fans as the movies themselves but offers plenty to enjoy at any age. There have been many books that retell the story of the films “for a new generation” but this one really stands out.

Past comic and novel adaptations of the films have usually been released around the same time as their corresponding movie, so to get them out on time they have been created based on early versions of the scripts. This usually results in scenes not in the movie, key moments missing and overall minor differences in the dialogue throughout. This kind of thing really bothered me as kid; “That’s not what Luke said!” “That’s not in the movie!” I’d say.

In this case thankfully the creators felt no need to change the script as we know it from the classic movies. I could easily hear the characters and famous lines in my mind as I read along. A few minor scenes were left out of these books but what is here is Star Wars greatness!

The new treat here the amazing artwork. This graphic novel is very modern in its style, presenting Star Wars in a way that would be very appealing to kids who read the popular Bone or Amulet series’ or enjoy shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender. Some of the panels look like they’re from a Star Wars 2-D animated show or movie, which would be amazing to see! There hasn’t been much Star Wars 2-D animation since the original Star Wars: Clone Wars “micro-series” from 2003-2005. This book makes me wish there was much more!

Words like beautiful, exciting, and absolutely cool are the words that best describe the artwork, created by a very talented team. If you know the story (if you’re reading this you likely do) then you already know how awesome THAT is!

Still not convinced? At a very reasonable price of $19.99 or less, this retelling of Episodes 4 - 6 belongs in EVERY Star Wars fan collection

Even better – the final page promises more of these graphic novels coming for Episodes 1 – 3, The Force Awakens and beyond. Yes, please!

(Publisher's Recommendation: Ages 8+ )