It’s been made very clear over the past couple years that Lucasfilm and its current parent company Disney are intent on making a determined effort to reintroduce Star Wars to a new generation of children, especially in the wake of the recently completed “Skywalker Saga” nine-movie storyline that spanned a number of decades both in-universe and in our real world.
A big part of that effort is coming from Lucasfilm Publishing and its books like Star Wars: Galactic Storybook, which was released earlier this week and written by Calliope Glass (Star Wars: AT-AT Attack!) with illustrations by Katie Cook (From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back).
Star Wars: Galactic Storybook retells the entire Skywalker Saga utilizing an extremely condensed narrative and simplified text across six chapters: “A Jedi Tale” (adapting the entire Star Wars prequel trilogy) “A New Adventure” (the original Star Wars film, now known as Episode IV – A New Hope) “The Battle Continues” (The Empire Strikes Back) “Against All Odds” (Return of the Jedi), “New Heroes for the Galaxy” (The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi), and “The Final Fight” (The Rise of Skywalker). Each page contains a few short, easy-to-read sentences getting across the gist of the major plot points from these stories, accompanied by cutesy, cartoony full-colors drawings depicting each scene. I have to admit these illustrations aren’t really my style, though younger kids might find them appealing. The characters are wide-eyed and big-headed, the vehicles are plumper than we’re used to seeing them, and the backgrounds are simplified to better get across the basic focal points of these events.
This book is probably a good way to familiarize very young children with the general outline of Episodes I-IX before they’re of the appropriate age to actually show them the films, if that’s something you’re planning to do. The front and back covers of Galactic Storybook are also notably “puffy” (by which I mean you can physically squeeze it and it would probably hurt less to get hit in the head with it than with other hardcover books) and its pages are slightly thicker and glossier than usual with rounded corners, which I imagine would make it easier for tiny hands to turn them. Unlike some other recent Star Wars kids’ books, I can’t really recommend this to adult fans, but for younglings who are its target demographic, it might be the perfect way to break the news about a certain adventurous Jedi Knight who becomes the evil Dark Lord of the Sith.
Star Wars: Galactic Storybook is available now for $10.99 wherever books are sold.