The High Republic: A New (Old) Era in Star Wars!

Earlier this week Lucasfilm announced a brand-new era of Star Wars books and comics that will be arriving soon: The High Republic. Set approximately 200 years BEFORE The Phantom Menace, this era has never before been properly explored. Now it will be the time-frame for numerous books and comics!

“Star Wars: The High Republic features the Jedi as we’ve always wanted to see them — as true guardians of peace and justice. This is a hopeful, optimistic time, when the Jedi and the Galactic Republic are at their height. But of course, into this glorious new era something wicked this way comes,” says Lucasfilm publishing creative director Michael Siglain. “This initiative will give readers young and old a new corner of the galaxy to explore through rich, meaningful stories. Plus, readers will learn what scares the Jedi.”

So far only the first wave of stories has been announced but already there's plenty of cause for excitement for young Star Wars fans:

Into the Dark (Disney/Lucasfilm Press)
From Claudia Gray (Lost Stars) comes the mysterious Young Adult novel of Padawan Reath Silas, stranded on what appears to be an abandoned space station...at first.

A Test of Courage (Disney/Lucasfilm Press)
From Justina Ireland (Spark of the Resistance, Lando's Luck) comes the middle grade novel about a teen Jedi Vernestra Rwoh, a young Padawan, an audacious tech-kid, and the son of an ambassador who are stranded on a jungle moon where they must work together to survive both the dangerous terrain and a hidden danger lurking in the shadows.

 
The High Republic comic series from Marvel Comics will begin written by Cavan Scott, one of our favourite current Star Wars writers! He has written several of the Adventures in Wild Space books, as well as the Choose Your Destiny titles, numerous Star Wars Adventures comics and Dooku: Jedi Lost!

For younger comic readers comes The High Republic Adventures (IDW Publishing)! These will begin with stories by Daniel José Older author of the Solo: A Star Wars Story tie-in novel Last Shot.

Details are still pretty sparse at the moment but other titles will be announced soon from this exciting new era!

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!

Marvel Star Wars #1 Arrives!

Star Wars #1 (2015)

Marvel Comics was the first company to print Star Wars comics back in 1977 and continued the series until 1986 along with the Droids and Ewoks comics until 1987. After a few years of no Star Wars comics at all, Dark Horse Comics began its own very successful storytelling in the galaxy far, far away from 1991 to the end of 2014. 

Star Wars #1 (1977)

Hundreds of stories later, Star Wars returns this week to its original comic home as Marvel releases yet another comic entitled simply Star Wars #1.

The 2015 Star Wars series kicks off a brand-new storyline set between Episodes 4 and 5. The first Death Star has been destroyed, Han and Chewbacca are getting used to be being good guys, Luke hasn’t met Yoda yet and Leia has resumed her role as a leader of the Rebellion. 

This is the same time period of the original Marvel Star Wars comics of the 1970’s, as well as many books like the Rebel Force series of kids’ novels.

Rebel Force: Target

The comic is well-written by Jason Aaron and drawn by artist John Cassaday and has many fun twists even within the first issue. You can read detailed reviews elsewhere but the real question for us is: Is it appropriate for kids?

The first issue comes with a Teen rating and earns it with a degree of violence similar to what you’d see in the movies. The story is not inappropriate for older kids who love the movies. Kids are just not the main intended audience. Shootings, slavery and lightsaber slicings happen, as you would expect in a Star Wars story along with comedic moments as part of the adventure. 

Star Wars #1 isn’t a kids’ comic book but for young readers who enjoy the movies, this is a great time to start enjoying monthly adventures in the galactic battle between Dark and Light.

In this issue is also a sneak peek at the upcoming new Darth Vader and Princess Leia comics, coming soon along with a series focusing on Kanan from Star Wars Rebels. No word if Marvel has plans to make comics specifically for kids but of course that would be mentioned here if/when that happens!

-Chris @SWKidscast