Spooky Star Wars Stories

In the past few years there have been plenty of options for young Star Wars readers to enjoy all aspects of the saga. Whether you prefer funny adventures like C-3PO Does Not Like Sand! or serious tales of the galactic struggle like Spark of the Resistance, there is a Star Wars story for everyone. 

Even fans of the SPOOKY side of the Force can find plenty to give them nightmares!

Here's a few of our favourite chilling tales in a galaxy far, far away... (Click on each for our original review)

Dark Legends by George Mann is a spine-tingling set of spooky tales has much in common with Myths & Fables as the stories are generally cautionary tales set in-universe in the Star Wars galaxy. Perhaps these are the stories that kept young padawans up at night?

The Mighty Chewbacca in the Forest of Fear! by Tom Angleberger is a middle-grade adventure novel featuring creepy chills and thrills hiding around every corner, or lurking in the next tree. Wookiees may not be afraid of the dangers that lurk ahead, but will you be?

Are You Scared, Darth Vader? by Adam Rex is a fun picture book where New York Times bestselling author/illustrator Adam Rex tries to answer the question of what could possibly scare the most terrifying villain in the galaxy. Spoiler alert: not much!

Tales from Vader's Castle are comics from IDW and part of the Star Wars Adventures series. These creepy comics have an over-riding story but also short stories within, featuring many familiar Star Wars characters facing horrors and frights! A follow up series called Return to Vader's Castle was also released. Both have been collected as graphic novels from IDW books.

Adventures in Wild Space is a series of middle-grade chapter books featuring all sorts of creepy crawlies and chilling brushes with danger. Exciting and fun, if you are brave enough!

And of course for those of you who are willing to dig deep and hunt them down, the original Galaxy of Fear chapter book series from 1997-98 is a must-read for terror and suspense in the Star Wars galaxy. The Adventures in Wild Space books and The Mighty Chewbacca

both owe a bit of debt to these Goosebumps-inspired thrillers! 

And while it's not a story, exactly, fans of the hairy, scary, scaly and creepy creatures of the Star Wars galaxy will want to check out DK Adventures' What Makes a Monster? by Adam Bray. This collection is recommended for any detail-oriented reader who’s enthusiastic to learn more about the furry, slimy or slithery beasts in the Star Wars saga.

What's the scariest Star Wars story you remember? Comment below!

Discover Use the Force!

What does it take to be a Jedi? Do you have what it takes? A brand-new book from DK poses those questions for young readers in a fun, entertaining way.

Use the Force! Discover What It Takes to Be a...Jedi is a 128-page guide book of sorts, but more of a light-hearted look at Jedi culture and famous Jedi in the Star Wars movies and TV shows. Not quite an In-Universe book, but still kind of is, this book explores the world of the Jedi in its own cheeky style.

Covering similar ground as more serious books like The Secrets of the Jedi and The Jedi Path, Use the Force! is a middle-grade "hybrid" book, meaning it's not really a graphic novel like the Jedi Academy series but still illustrated throughout with black and white photos and sketchy drawings. The design of this book is unique: LOTS of different fonts and plenty of yellow.

Fans of the Jedi Academy series and Tom Angleberger's Origami Yoda books will appreciate author Christian Blauvelt's humorous approach to the usually very serious topics of Jedi training, lifestyle, philosophy and more.

It's wonderful to see the continued practice of including TV characters and storylines in these books and not just focusing on the movies. Also Use the Force! is very current as it mentions a few things only revealed in the recent The Rise of Skywalker movie.

The overall look of the book may not appeal to some. DK is known for their amazing Visual Dictionary and other stunning Star Wars guide books but here the images are all black and white, or intentionally-amateurish line drawings.

One small complaint: the author makes it seem that Luke Skywalker himself trained Rey in the Jedi ways, but it was Leia who did that. Luke famously REFUSED to train her in their short time together in The Last Jedi. As seen in The Rise of Skywalker, Leia is the one training Rey. Here Leia is not mentioned as having been trained or teaching Rey as a Jedi, only that Leia "helps" Rey redeem Kylo Ren.

Use the Force! covers some pretty familiar territory as other books, but in very light-hearted way many younglings will enjoy.

(Publisher's Recommendation: Ages 7-10)

Also by Christian Blauvelt: 

 

R2-D2 is LOST! ...and a Lot of Fun!

The duo that brought us C-3PO Does Not Like Sand! returns with another fun Droid Tales picture book featuring R2-D2, C-3PO and BB-8 from Disney - Lucasfilm Press.

Set some time after The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi - indicated only by the fact that the three droids know each other - author Caitlin Kennedy (The Galaxy Needs You) takes the trio on an adventure, this time returning to the forest moon of Endor, home to the Ewoks.

C-3PO delights again in being worshipped by the furry Ewoks, but R2-D2 appears to become annoyed, possibly even jealous, with his friend getting such attention. The astromech rolls off on his own into the dangerous Endor wilderness.

R2-D2 then encounters a lost young Ewok and becomes the child's caretaker, assuming the unlikely role of babysitter. The two then embark on their own little adventure to find their way back to the Ewok village.

Unlike C-3PO Does Not Like Sand!, which had the talkative C-3PO chattering away through everything, this book contains very few words as neither R2 or the young Ewok have much to say in words we'd understand. The story is told visually by the colourful cartoon artwork of Brian Kesinger.

There's funny stuff, scary stuff and several moments parents and caregivers will find very relatable in this short adventure tale.

Like the previous book, this feels very similar to the 1980's Saturday morning Droids cartoon kind of story and humour. It's unclear if Droid Tales is going to continue only as a book series or maybe it turns into something bigger. Pehaps BB-8 will get his own book next? Perhaps a new animated cartoon series? Let's hope!

(Publisher's Recommendation: Age 5-8 years)

Also available:

C-3PO Does Not Like Sand, But You'll Probably Like This Book!

What happens when C-3PO, R2-D2 and BB-8 get sent on secret mission to Tatooine for the Resistance? A LOT, apparently!

As their mission is simply to "scan the planet", they stroll and roll across the desert encountering nearly everything you can remember from past adventures on Tatooine. Creatures, aliens, racers and more are among the fun surprises on each turn of the 64 pages.

Poor C-3PO grows more and more annoyed at every step with the heat, the two other droids, and especially the sand getting in all of his inner-workings.

Yes, like his creator Anakin Skywalker, C-3PO Does NOT Like Sand!

This simple adventure story seems to be set after the events of The Last Jedi, based on the fact BB-8 is there and R2-D2 is back with them from his adventure with Rey.

Anakin didn't care much for sand either!

Since Disney-Lucasfilm Press began creating Star Wars picture books they have been pretty wildly different from each other. From the beautifully painted BB-8 On The Run, to the adorable Chewie & the Porgs to the dark-yet-very-silly Are You Scared, Darth Vader?, there are now a small variety of stories to choose from for bedtime or anytime reading for very young Star Wars fans.

C-3PO Does Not Like Sand! feels more like a book from the 1970's than 2019 and creates a wonderful nostalgic feeling for adults reading it.

The story by Caitlin Kennedy and illustrations by Brian Kesinger give it a look and feel almost like a Dr. Seuss book, but also has a lot in common with classic Sesame Street Grover books like The Monster at the End of This Book.

Even more though, this book is a delight for fans of the 80's Droids cartoon TV series. It's very much the kind of misadventure seen regularly on that show, with a similar sense of humour.

The spine is the only place that does this but the book is identified there as a "Droid Tales" book. Let's hope there's many more Droid Tales to come, and hopefully with K-2SO or L3-37!
 
For those of us who grew up on Star Wars, C-3PO Does Not Like Sand! is a lot of fun to read with younglings, or just to enjoy ourselves.

(Publisher's Recommendation: 4 - 8 years)

Read You Must: Star Wars Search Your Feelings

From the creative team that brought us ABC-3PO and Obi-One, Two, Three comes Seach Your Feelings, a poetry-filled exploration of the wide range of emotions experienced by humans, aliens and droids alike, brand new from Disney-Lucasfilm Press.

Starting with events from The Phantom Menace (Anakin destroying the Trade Federation Droid Control Ship while flying a Naboo starfighter to demonstrate "Excited"), Calliope Glass & Caitlin Kennedy have created a 48 page, (mainly) chronological look at the Star Wars saga in short verse poems. 

Each poem has it's own emotional theme, like Jealous, Hopeful, Calm, Surprised or Frustrated, as they flow right to the ending of The Last Jedi.

With plenty of humour and love of the Star Wars saga, the poems contextualize each feeling to a particular familiar moment from the films; the infamous trash compactor scene (Disgusted), a tantrum by Kylo Ren (Angry) and most poignantly, Luke Skywalker in exile (Lonely).

For every feeling, there is a two-page illustration by the fabulous Katie Cook. Her incredibly cute (yet still authentic) take on Star Wars characters give this book an added layer of levity. Yet somehow Cook's illustrations deepen the emotional impact of certain moments too: C-3PO has never looked sadder than he does on the "Sad" page.

Despite the adorable style of Cook's illustrations, and the obvious subject of emotions, this book is a lot of fun and probably a lot more accessible to kids than many books about feelings. It's all about feelings, of course, but it doesn't seem very "touchy-feely", if that makes any sense.

Search Your Feelings, and explore this book today!

Publisher's Recommendation: Ages 6 & up 

Also available:

Don't Be Scared of Are You Scared, Darth Vader?

Don't be scared of some silliness in your Star Wars!

Since Halloween itself is not really a thing in the Star Wars Galaxy (that we know of), there hasn't really been a lot of Halloweeny Star Wars storytelling over the years. There have been spooky Star Wars stories, like the 90's Galaxy of Fear book series, but Disney/Lucasfilm Press has now released what is arguably the first Star Wars Halloween picture book.

Are You Scared, Darth Vader? by New York Times bestselling author/illustrator Adam Rex tries to answer the question of what could possibly scare the most terrifying villain in the galaxy.

Spoiler alert: not much!

Darth Vader lurks in a dark, gloomy, Dagobah-like swamp while the narrator taunts him with various not-very-scary things, trying to find the one thing that may frighten the Dark Lord of the Sith. Then others join in, more from the world of classic horror movies than from Star Wars, to try to scare him.


Things get really silly and fun but it's difficult to describe without revealing a few of the surprises that await the reader. 

On a quick flip-through this appears to be a bleak, even dismal, looking book. However, the escalating attempts to scare Vader, along with his deadpan responses, are really enjoyable in contrast to the darkness. Clearly it would help if someone in your household can talk like Vader when reading this one aloud! 

Rex's not-very-scary monster artwork is reminiscent of early MAD magazine cartoonists like Harvey Kurtzman and Jack Davis. High praise indeed!

Forget about this book fitting into the rest of Star Wars. It doesn't. Are You Scared, Darth Vader? exists in its own little world. It almost feels like it could be dialogue from brave kids meeting Darth Vader at Disneyland. 

This book is the Star Wars equivalent to a "Fractured Fairy Tale".

Have a laugh and enjoy this twisted take on classic characters. Happy (early) Halloween!

Since we always like to remember Star Wars books from the past, here's a few items that could also almost be considered Star Wars Halloween books...

Read, You Must: Encyclopedia of Starfighters and Other Vehicles

I must admit that the spaceships are not my favourite part of Star Wars. While I completely appreciate them on screen, and especially in toy form, I've never gotten particularly excited about the vehicles.

For me Star Wars is so much about the characters - and especially the aliens! For a 208-page book specifically about vehicles to keep me engaged like Encyclopedia of Starfighters and Other Vehicles has, that's really impressive! Certainly I can see readers referring back to this one many times.

Written by Landry Q. Walker (author of the very entertaining Star Wars Aliens Volume 1 and writer for the Star Wars Adventures comics), this book is similar to DK's Encyclopedia of Characters in many ways.

Encyclopedia of Starfighters gives one full-colour, individual fact-sheet for about 200 Star Wars vehicles. Whether they are pivotal to the Star Wars Saga like Millennium Falcon or the Death Star, or very obscure “blink-and-you-miss-it” background ships, everything is equal here. Each page has several images and details about the ship plus how they fit into the story.

The title is a little misleading as there seem to be just as many cargo ships, transporters, walkers, tanks, boats, frigates, cruisers, speeders, skiffs and just about everything else as there are starfighters. Starfighters is probably a more exciting word than "transports" though.

The book contains vehicles from Episodes 1 - 8, plus Rogue One, The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, all side-by-side. It's a great recent trend when books like this treat the saga as a whole, and weighing the animated shows equally with the movies.


Encyclopedia of Starfighters is divided into sections on Air, Land, Water, and of course Space vehicles, which is the largest section by far. Some of the ships are very well known while others may have only been in one episode of a TV show. Usually from the pictures it's clear what movie an image is from but I would've appreciated something like "First seen in The Clone Wars Season 2 Episode..." on a few of them.

Among all the images and information, author Landry Walker has fun with some of the section headings with puns like "Maul Aboard", "Soulless Asylum" (ask your parents) and "End over Endor", or cheeky references to movies like "Ion Giant, "Fast and Furious", the 1902 silent film "Trip to the Moon" and at least one reference to Top Gun. Fans of Star Wars Rebels will appreciate why the threatening Clone Wars-era AT-TE walker is referred to as a "Retirement Home".

Thall Joben from 1985's Droids cartoon

One enjoyable nugget that jumped out for this 80's kid was the expansion of the story of Kanan Jarrus' Joben T-85 Speeder. In Adam Bray's 2014 Star Wars Rebels The Visual Guide, the name Joben seemed to be a reference to the racing character Thall Joben from the 1985 Star Wars cartoon series Droids. Here that is confirmed and elaborated on that the bike is indeed "named for famous swoop racer Thall Joben". 

There's probably more fun for keen-eyed fans to discover too!
 

There is one design oddity that jumped out: on the page for the infamous Slave-1, the ship is rightly attributed to Jango Fett, then to Boba Fett but here Boba is only briefly mentioned and neither Fett is pictured. Instead, the pirate Hondo Ohnaka is pictured with a reference to one time he "borrowed" the ship. A picture of Jango and young Boba sitting together in the cockpit would've made much more sense here. Hondo fans will be happy though!

The Star Wars Encyclopedia of Starfighters is highly recommended for fans wanting a quick overview of many vehicles in an easily accessible format. If you’re looking for further details, you’ll also want to dive into books like the Incredible Cross-Sections series (also from DK).

(Publisher's Recommendation: Ages 8 - 12 years)

Read, You Must: BB-8 On The Run

BB's Big Adventure!

What happened to BB-8 in The Force Awakens between fleeing from the First Order and meeting Rey?

Apparently quite a lot!

BB-8 On the Run is an exciting new picture book from Disney/Lucasfilm Press that reveals the droid’s mini-adventure on Jakku, the scenes that happen between-the-scenes from the movie.

Drew Daywalt, author of the very popular The Day the Crayons Quit, tells the tale of BB-8 facing danger, making friends, being a hero and much more. It is a very busy day for the rolling droid!

With vibrant, beautifully colourful paintings by illustrator Matt Myers on every page, the story feels as warm as the Jakku sunlight.

BB-8 starts his first day alone on Jakku by trying to be helpful but unfortunately rolls himself into a scavenger’s trap! The Teedo character who has BB-8 caught in a net in the film is the main villain here, and it turns out the alien and the droid have plenty of conflict in the day prior to meeting Rey.

Teedo rides a Luggabeast!

Teaming up with another trapped droid, the hulky but cartoonish F3-ZK (aka. “Fez”), BB-8 escapes and proceeds to flee further across the Jakku desert. New dilemmas seem to be over each sandy hill, and BB-8 never shies from the challenges. Never discouraged either, he spends his day doing random acts of kindness.

BB-8 On the Run is really a story about making choices, that every situation presents the choice to be selfless and help others. BB-8 knows his own mission is very important, but so is doing the right thing for those who need help. His owner Poe would be very proud of his decisions even when they seem dangerous!

After being “on the run” all day, BB-8 eventually encounters Teedo one more time, which leads to meeting Rey as seen in The Force Awakens. This leads to a satisfying conclusion for those who have seen the film and know how it all plays out. 

Young readers may not know what happens next, though, who the woman is or why Teedo is suddenly gone. Children unfamiliar with the movie (which was rated PG-13 for USA) will probably need the abrupt ending explained.

More important though, the story is an entertaining adventure, beautifully illustrated and full of kindness and humanity – not an easy thing to do for a story about a robot!

The tone here might be a little too cute for some adult tastes but BB-8 On the Run cleverly walks that line. For or those who remember the 1980's Droids cartoons and comics fondly you will likely really enjoy this as well!

Highly recommended!

Watch, You Must: Jedi Junior High

Now available on Netflix* (and many other streaming services) is a documentary that many Star Wars fans will enjoy. 

Jedi Junior High is the behind-the-scenes story of the making of a Star Wars live musical production! Specifically it is an adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back, staged in 2009.

For any seasoned theatre company this would be a huge undertaking, but this show has a cast of performers all ranging from about 8 to 13 years old! On top of that, there is a wide range of experience and skill among the cast.

Over the course of the film you get to know the cast, their families, the crew and the creators who put the whole thing together. The young cast range from kids vaguely aware of the story to kids who (like most people reading this right now) live and breathe Star Wars saga! 

Here's the trailer:

Jedi Junior High goes through the audition process, the rehearsals, the backstage drama and the exciting opening night.

"Chewbacca" learns that being a wookiee is a very sweaty life

So how could they do a live musical that includes the battle of Hoth? Carbon freezing? Yoda??

The clever ways the producers of the show have come up with to include all these and more are just one of the reasons to enjoy this movie.

Be prepared to laugh, to be moved, to see the cutest Yoda you’ve ever seen and to cheer on a whole crew of young rebels!

For more details visit jedijuniorhigh.com

*Available on Netflix USA and Canada. Check other areas.