With the new movie just out, Star Wars fever has probably gripped your kid. Use that force — for good — and hook your kid on reading with Star Wars, Jedi Academy, written and illustrated by Jeffrey Brown.
There are lots of truly awful Star Wars fan-fictiony books out there. This series is not one of those–it’s very, very good. In fact, I recommend that you read it, as well.
The stories revolve around a boy named Roan Novachez, “who is destined to attend Pilot Academy Middle School and become the GREATEST star pilot in the GALAXY. Until everything went TOTALLY and COMPLETELY WRONG…” That’s a direct quote from the Star Wars-esque opening credits of the book. Very fun.
What goes wrong? Well, the pilot academy turns Roan down for the career he’s been planning for his entire life. However, somehow an instructor named Master Yoda gets hold of Roan’s application and invites him to attend the Jedi Academy because:
“Strong in you, the Force is–Jedi you may be. Much potential, you have. Good to teach you, it will be!”
The books are illustrated and written as though in a kid’s journal, much like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which means that they’ll also appeal to kids who love that series as well.
There are at least a couple of other books (I’m not sure how many–possibly three), which you can purchase on Amazon.ca here; they retail for $13.99. I read the second book, Return of the Padawan, and it was just as wonderfully quirky and funny as the first one. The author’s websites are here and here and his Goodreads author page is here.
