Tag: children’s books

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Video: Unboxing Star Wars: Before the Awakening, Star Wars Half Marathon & Rebels

Unboxing Star Wars 2-3-16 title card

Unboxing Star Wars is back, with a lot of catch up on. Baby Jawa, Yowie, and I briefly cover The Force Awakens and my Wear Star Wars Every Day fundraising campaign for Collateral Repair Project, before diving deeper into the Star Wars Half Marathon weekend, Greg Rucka’s Before the Awakening, and the first two episodes of Star Wars Rebels for 2016: ‘A Princess on Lothal’ and ‘The Protector of Concord Dawn.’

Check out the Star Wars Rebels episode guide for ‘A Princess on Lothal’ and ‘The Protector of Concord Dawn’ over at StarWars.com. Get more info on Wear Star Wars Every Day or make a donation at GoFundMe.

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Video: Unboxing Star Wars: Season of the Force, Epic Yarns, Rebels ‘Legacy’

Unboxing Star Wars 12/13/15

With less than a week to go before The Force Awakens, Yowie, Baby Jawa, and Jawajames host a jumbo-sized episode of Unboxing Star Wars. This time, we talk about our visit to Season of the Force at Disneyland California, and even get an interview with two guests, Bryan Young and Dartanian Richards, outside Path of the Jedi. We also check out the Star Wars Epic Yarns books from Jack and Holman Wang, review the most recent Rebels episode, ‘Legacy’, and try some of Captain Phasma’s Crazy Hot popchips. Watch out, Baby Jawa – they’re hot!

Check out the Star Wars Rebels episode guide for ‘Legacy’, get more info on Star Wars Epic Yarns, and read my full report on Season of the Force. You can also enter the popchips Pop with the Force contest.

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Video: Unboxing ‘Stealth Strike’, Lando comics & Rebels Super Solve It

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On Unboxing Star Wars this week, Yowie, Baby Jawa, and I take a look at this week’s Star Wars Rebels episode, ‘Stealth Strike.’ I also review the Lando five issue comic series that was released this past summer and fall from Marvel, and also take a look at one of the best Star Wars activity books to come out in a long while, Rebels Super Solve It. Plus we find some fruit with a connection to The Force Awakens?

Get more details on the Rebels episode ‘Stealth Strike’, Marvel’s Lando series by Charles Soule and Alex Maleev, Star Wars Rebels: Super Solve It by Dan Wallace.

Don’t forget that the Yavin Toys R Us Epic Battles medal will be distributed next weekend, December 4th and 5th, when you bring your certificate.

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Video: James reviews Moving Target and Salt Lake Comic Con

Moving Target - Salt Lake Comic Con

Yowie the Skunk, Baby Jawa, and Jawajames are back with another Unboxing Star Wars video! This time, we check out a BB-8 shirt, dive into the Journey to the Force Awakens book, Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure by Cecil Castellucci and Jason Fry, and also talk about what was cool in the world of Star Wars at Salt Lake Comic Con!


For more on how Cecil Castellucci developed the character of Leia in Moving Target, check back to her Force Friday author appearance.

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The Force Awakens books: Wave 2 officially announced

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StarWars.com has the word on some of The Force Awakens books that’ll be released with the movie on December 18th (in addition to The Art of, which we heard about last week.) It’s mostly kid stuff, but there is DK’s standard Visual Dictionary for the movie, and a book from Greg Rucka called Before the Awakening:

A companion piece to the Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens character novels, Star Wars: Before the Awakening is an anthology book that focuses on the lives of Rey, Finn, and Poe before the events of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The novelization(s) of the film are both under “still to come,” so no cover reveals there just yet, but we know the eBook for Alan Dean Foster’s version will be out the 18th, with the hardcover dropping January 5.

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Reviews of the Original Trilogy retellings: thumbs up!

So You Want to Be a JediOver at BigShinyRobot.com, I’ve got reviews of this week’s new books for younger readers from Disney Lucasfilm Press. All three are great reads, taking the original trilogy films and telling them from new perspectives.

→ A New Hope: The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy by Alexandra Bracken is told in three parts, each from a different point of view as the three heroes recognize the simple labels they’ve got, and grow past them. Lots of great Leia stuff in the first third (including extra scenes), and Wedge makes a good appearance in the Luke section at the end.

→ The Empire Strikes Back: So You Want to Be a Jedi? by Adam Gidwitz put the reader square into the action by putting them in the role of Luke Skywalker. Great getting into Luke’s thoughts and emotions, plus lots of Jedi lessons at the end of each chapter to help readers become more mindful.

→ Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side! by Tom Angleberger amps up the fun and excitement of Episode VI. More explosions, more sound effects, more Ewoks, and more funny footnotes! Plus witness the tragedies of Moff Jerjerrod and Romba!

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Star Wars out this week: New young reader adaptions

Out Tuesday are the new adaptations of the original trilogy for young readers. By Alexandra Bracken, Adam Gidwitz and Tom Angleberger, they all have crazy mouthful titles: The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy (A New Hope), So You Want to Be a Jedi? (The Empire Strikes Back) and Beware the Power of the Dark Side! (Return of the Jedi). Bracken has been making the rounds, with an interview on Eleven-ThirtyEight and a blog entry on StarWars.com.

If you’re longing for something a little more traditional, there’s Kanan #6 on Wednesday, and Star Wars Insider #160 should be hitting newsstands.

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Video: Star Wars authors Bray, Horton, Kogge and Castellucci at Mysterious Galaxy


Last Thursday, Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego hosted a quartet of Star Wars authors as they counted down for the Force Friday midnight releases. Representing the first stop on DK’s Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know book release tour were three of its authors: Adam Bray, Cole Horton, and Michael Kogge. Rounding out the team was author Cecil Castellucci, who wrote one of the new young adult books, Moving Target, with Jason Fry. Moderating the panel were Richard and Sarah Woloski of the Skywalking Through Neverland podcast.

Video is of the author panel and Q&A session. Revealed at the end of the evening was the announcement that Michael Kogge is the author of the junior novelization of The Force Awakens, coming out in 2016. And if you just want to see some photos of the event, including the induction of the podcast hosts into Rebel Legion, I’ve got a gallery here.

Looking for signed copies of the books? Mysterious Galaxy has you covered! The Absolutely Everything You Need to Know tour picks up again next weekend around the US.

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Video: Force Friday Countdown: Force Thursday


Baby Jawa, Yowie and Jawajames complete their series of countdown to Force Friday videos with this entry for Force Thursday. They get into some Star Wars Mac n Cheese, check out Jeffrey Brown’s Darth Vader and Friends, and preview Tom Angleberger’s retelling of Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side.