Page 26 - Star Wars Insider #182

STORIES FOR YOUNGLINGS

with Luke and Leia who were “Showing children a version of
obviously a lot older than me. But
with characters such as Lina and themselves within Star Wars is
Milo there’s a closer connection incredibly important.”
with the reader’s everyday life.
The emotions they experience—
worrying about their parents,
feeling alone, not knowing who to of Join the Resistance explains: “I The Importance of Fun
trust—are all things that kids can want the books to read well out Other books focus directly on
relate to, and the kinds of things loud. When I was young, being teaching kids to read and write,
they would worry about if they read to was the best thing in the while also appealing to new
were lost and alone in the Star world, and I vividly remember and expectant parents. In 2016,
Wars universe.” learning new words that way. ABC-3P0 by Calliope Glass and
Part of the deal in writing for kids Caitlin Kennedy explored the Star
Perils and Pitfalls is peppering the language with Wars alphabet, with each letter
Writing young characters within vocabulary they might encounter accompanied by a humorous
Star Wars presents its own set of for the fi rst time.” poem. While aimed fi rmly at
challenges, as Tom Huddleston, “Star Wars includes a lot of infants, there are plenty of nods
author of three Adventures in Wild technical terms,” agrees Michael for older fans. For example, “A
Space novels agrees: “The stories Kogge. “I debated using ‘fuselage’ is for Ackbar” sees the admiral
had to feel perilous without being in The Force Awakens Junior desperately trying not to fall into
too threatening or scary. The kids Novelization and decided to keep the trap of saying his famous
also had to be as confi dent and it in, because Star Wars is a great catchphrase. “It’s a hard balance
smart—repairing spaceships and way of helping young readers to strike but it’s really satisfying,”
evading Imperials—without being grasp vocabulary through context. says Glass. “It’s fun to work in
superhuman. Our readers had to If a seventh-grader can read Oliver some Easter eggs; little references
relate to them.” Twist, there’s no reason why they that are like a secret handshake to
There are other considerations can’t understand challenging the grown-up reading the book.”
too when writing for a younger language when it’s couched in a My own favorite poem from the
audience, as Ben Acker, co-author story they already love” original Star Wars alphabet book,

10

10 Enabling younglings to learn their ABC is as
important today as it was in 1984.
11 (Opposite page) The mighty Chewbacca and
Rey headline two recent Star Wars books.

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