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!

Jedi Academy: A New Class and a New Beginning

The fourth book in the Jedi Academy series is full of “new” stuff indeed.

After three books by Jeffrey Brown focused on a young Jedi named Roan Novachez, A New Class starts fresh with author/illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Lunch Lady, Platypus Police Squad, Punk Farm) taking over this Scholastic series.

Krosoczka’s art and writing styles are different than Brown’s but he does keep the look somewhat consistent with the earlier books. He is clearly a very talented visual storyteller and it will be nice to see him make this series even more his own if he continues with it.

Jarrett J. Krosoczka (right)

A New Class focuses on a brand new main character so it really is a new start to the series.     

                       

For those who are unfamiliar with the Jedi Academy series the books are middle-grade, thoroughly-illustrated novels “told” by a young Jedi student. Imagine a Diary of a Wimpy Kid–type book in Star Wars.

This series is an alternate take on Star Wars where the Jedi are not a serious, monk-like order of Masters and Apprentices. Instead, this is a North American middle-school set in space with a lot of Star Wars puns and jokes throughout. One example, in the movies the Jedi are forbidden to have personal attachments to other people (a crucial story point made over and over) but in the Jedi Academy world, the students have mixed-gender dances, have dates, crushes and even fly home frequently to see their families! So basically you need to disregard everything you know about the Jedi Order or George Lucas’ vision of Star Wars to enjoy these books. 

A New Class begins the tale of Victor Starspeeder, a likeable young Jedi student transferring from another school to the Jedi Academy on Coruscant. In his first year there he meets a few new friends, discovers he has some talent that helps the drama club and has to learn a few lessons along the way with the help of his big sister, a fellow Jedi student. The bigger issues for Victor though are his romantic feelings for a classmate and his unfortunate choice of friendships. Everything builds towards – nope, not a lightsaber battle – nope, not a space battle – the big school play at the end of the year! The drama here is literally about drama!

Along the way are field trips to Endor (the Ewoks’ home moon), food fights, lightsaber training and more. Long-time Star Wars fans will appreciate the dangerous encounter with a Gorax, a creature that debuted in the Ewoks TV movie Caravan of Courage back in 1984! There’s also comic strips throughout parodying Garfield, Peanuts and Family Circus. While only a small portion of the book, there also is a very positive depiction of step-parenting in A New Class, with the character of Russell.

Jeffrey Brown’s three Jedi Academy books were filled with gags on the theme of putting modern Earth things into Star Wars for a laugh. Jarrett Krosoczka uses far less of that type of humour but it’s still there for readers who enjoy that. For the rest there’s a fast-paced story of a young boy trying to fit in.

Since A New Class begins a brand new storyline in the school, readers could easily start here. It’s not vital to have read the first three books in this series before enjoying this one but books 1 – 3 should be read in that order. 

(Publisher’s recommendation: ages 8 – 12)

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+ )