Young Padawans will be over Endor to get a bit of background on the endearing BB-8, but the story’s unlikely to reach beyond...
Everyone’s favorite Force Awakens droid gets his own picture-book prequel, and he does a slew of good deeds.
Daywalt, author of The Day the Crayons Quit, chronicles the trials of BB-8 as he makes his way across the desert planet of Jakku. After an explosion in the town of Tuanul, BB-8’s separated from pilot Poe, who’s given BB-8 a map to find Luke Skywalker. Now it is up to the droid to get the map to the Resistance. BB-8’s scared, but he remembers what Poe told him: “You do good things, and good things will come back to you.” When BB-8 comes upon Teedo, whose luggabeast is stuck, BB-8 tries to help…but it’s a trap. In captivity, BB-8 meets F3-ZK, who goes by “Fez,” and the two hatch a plot to escape. Once free, the two are separated in an attack by steelpeckers. To complete his mission, BB-8 wants to get to Fez’s spaceship before it leaves, but he stops to help a scavenger family and a wounded happabore. Teedo reappears just as Fez and BB-8 are boarding the ship, and BB-8 distracts Teedo so Fez can escape. What about Poe’s words of wisdom? Happily, a young woman appears and saves him…the adventure’s just beginning. Daywalt’s clearly told story, long on event if short on flair, and Myers’ paintings (with digitally added special effects) mesh well enough.
Young Padawans will be over Endor to get a bit of background on the endearing BB-8, but the story’s unlikely to reach beyond that admittedly huge audience . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4847-0508-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Disney Lucasfilm
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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