Star Wars: Jedi Academy: The Phantom Bully

The Kiddo borrowed this from the school library.

Title: Star Wars: Jedi Academy: Return of the Padawan
Publisher: Scholastic
Date: 2015
Writer: Jeffrey Brown
Artist: Jeffrey Brown

The third installment in the series covers Roan Novachez's third and final year at Jedi Academy middle school. Roan is nervous about his third year, with an independent study with the stern Mr. Garfield, plus a series of high-stakes challenges coming up. He's also the victim of a series of pranks and mishaps. He figures that his old nemesis Cronah is behind the bullying, but Cronah always seems to have an alibi. It's getting to the point that Roan is starting to believe there's a conspiracy against him.

This ended up being a nice conclusion to the series. Roan showed that he has grown and learned over the course of three books, and his bonds with his friends grew stronger. There were a few fun new developments at the end, and there was plenty of potential for further adventures as Roan heads for his Jedi high school years.

Rating: 8/10

Star Wars: Jedi Academy: Return of the Padawan

This was my best find at the PTA used book table at my school's Back to School Bash in September.

Title: Star Wars: Jedi Academy: Return of the Padawan
Publisher: Scholastic
Date: 2014
Writer: Jeffrey Brown
Artist: Jeffrey Brown

Jedi Padawan Roan Novachez is back for his second year at Coruscant's Jedi Academy. He's excited to get back together with friends, and he's eager to start his star pilot flight training, confident that this in one class he's sure to ace.

But as the year goes on, his friendships start to sour over a series of mishaps and misunderstandings, and he finds new friends in the two biggest bullies in the Academy. Roan doesn't mean to cause harm, but once he's in with the wrong crowd, he finds it's hard to make things right again.

This book did a nice job of taking the very likeable main character from the first book, and showing, well, his dark side. I read this with the Kiddo, and he was clearly getting fed up with Roan's behavior as the climax neared.

Some of the situations are fairly typical school-drama scenarios that could be solved easily enough if people would just talk to each other, but a lot of Roan's choices through the story, even his bad choices, made a lot of sense.

This was not as much fun as the first book, but it did add a decent amount of depth to the story and to the character of Roan.

Rating: 7/10

Star Wars: Jedi Academy

The Kiddo bought this at Books A Million in Portland ME over the summer.

Title: Star Wars: Jedi Academy
Publisher: Scholastic
Date: 2013
Writer: Jeffrey Brown
Artist: Jeffrey Brown

A boy from Tatooine only wants to be a starfighter pilot like his dad and his older brother. But when he receives a rejection letter from Pilot Academy Middle School, an unexpected opportunity presents itself. Roan Novachez is soon on his way to Coruscant at the invitation of Master Yoda to enter Jedi Academy and learn the ways of the Force.

This is a nice bit of light Star Wars humor featuring a generally well-adjusted kid thrown into a world that is suddenly a lot bigger than he had envisioned it to be. The story does not run heavy on plot or emotional drama. Almost all of it is small moments of making friends, learning new things, and opening eyes to new possibilities.

There are the requisite school bullies, but even they don't feel like anything all that sinister. This is a feel-good book that does a nice job of reminding the reader that not everything in the Star Wars mythos needs to be taken quite so seriously.

There are plenty of amusing jokes along the way, but the friendships and the quiet moments are what really make this special.

Rating: 8/10

Darth Vader and Son

This is what the Kiddo picked out on our recent visit to Million Year Picnic in Cambridge MA.

Title: Darth Vader & Son
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Date: 2012
Writer: Jeffrey Brown
Artist: Jeffrey Brown

Star Wars: Episode Three-and-a-Half. This collection of charming cartoons imagines Lord Vader raising four-year-old Luke Skywalker. The kid has all of the expected quirks of a four-year-old, and he seems a bit hesitant about the whole dark-side thing.

Cartoons cover a bunch of classic parenting scenarios, but the real cleverness of this collection is the author's knack for slipping in bits of dialogue from the Star Wars films into those parenting situations. There are also guest appearances by characters and creatures from across the Star Wars galaxy.

By blatantly avoiding any attempt at canon or continuity, this book manages to use familiar characters and images in some really funny ways.

Both myself and the Kiddo were laughing all the way through.

Rating: 8.5