Happy New Year!!
Another year gone, another one begun. This time of year usually finds me in a bit of a funk. I’m never sure what to do. I feel like I should be starting over and making all these big plans, but in reality the days proceed pretty much as they always have. I guess that’s why I opted for some simple YA superhero and Star Wars themed reading this week. It was only after I put this list together that I realized the all-black covers might be too indicative of my mood. Ah, well. Moving on…
- Black Widow: Forever Red, by Margaret Stohl. This is less about Black Widow and more about the main character, Ava Orlova who happens to have also been trained/imprisoned in the same Russian facility in which Black Widow was kept as a child. They share the same crazy, mad-scientist “creator” who reappears in this book to finish his work. It’s an interesting story, but what drew me to it was the round-about way that the adventure reveals more of Black Widow’s past than you see in the Avengers movies.
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A New Hope: The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy, by Alexandra Bracken. You can think of this one and the two listed below as pretty much the same book with different titles. They are “Star Wars light,” meant for younger readers. They are essentially the same stories as A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. The difference is that they are meant for kids who didn’t grow up with the originals. The language is simpler and more modern and there are plenty of attractive illustrations. Honestly, though, I think kids would be better of reading the original books. Those aren’t written at a high level (I read the first one when I was seven years old and only a few things went over my head) and they have much more depth to them. These new books barely scratch the surface of the originals. I’d recommend them for reluctant readers, only. Others should just stick to the originals.
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So You Want to Be a Jedi?, by Adam Gidwitz. (This is the retelling of The Empire Strikes Back)
- Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side!, by Tom Angleberger. (This is the retelling of Return of the Jedi)
Good kick-start!