A NEW CLASS

A midterm transfer to the Jedi Academy campus on Coruscant not only supercharges Victor Starspeeder’s dreams of becoming a Jedi Knight, but teaches him how to tell bad friends from good.

Picking up the authorial reins from Jeffrey Brown, Krosoczka continues the series with a new protagonist and a few venturesome twists. Spurned on arrival by his star-student big sister, Christina, Victor latches on to seemingly friendly Zach, who offers to show him the ropes but turns out to be a bully and a prankster trying to get into Christina’s good graces. Meanwhile, though strong in the Force, Victor has both attention and temper issues that lead to several embarrassing mishaps. These earn him forcible enrollment in drama club, which is in rehearsals for My Fair L-8E, a musical tale of human/droid love. Mishaps continue, but, as wise instructor Yoda puts it, “go on, the show must.” So it does, to a triumph. Interspersed with prose journal entries, doodles, official documents, and pages from the school newspaper, the monochrome cartoon panels that present most of the episode depict Victor, his sister, and their mom with medium-toned skin (their stepfather’s is darker yet) amid faculty and students of diverse franchise species.

Typical middle school experiences for young Padawans, featuring crushes, quizzes, and food fights highlighted by a climactic lightsaber duel in the hallway.