Reviews

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith by Geof Smith

justthatstarwarsbookgirl's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The first thing I truly noticed about this book as soon as I opened it was the artwork. It completely blew me away with just how beautiful every image was and how long I wanted to sit there and absorb every detail on each page. The style of artwork is just so beautifully detailed for a children’s book, it’s amazing. The colors of the book are gorgeous, bright and vivid as well as completely accurate to the storyline and movie of Star Wars. The characters are the most beautiful yet simplistic and completely accurate pieces of work on the page. Another thing I love about this book is something I would have major difficulty doing, and so therefore have amazing and great appreciation for the skill of: the author’s retelling of the Revenge of the Sith movie is completely accurate, and concises all of the most important details of the plot and storyline really amazingly, especially since The Revenge of the Sith is one of if not the most complicated Star Wars movie, due to all of the politics and the motives for Anakin turning from the Light to the Dark side of the Force. I think the author of the retelling also did a FANTASTIC job keeping the highest rated Star Wars movie (PG-13) completely child-friendly with little to no detailing or mention of the frightening or scary moments seen in the movie (I mean, admit it, we all watched Anakin catch on fire on the lava bank as a young child and got the s*** scared out of us as well as scarred for life). The burning and injuring of Anakin is mentioned only in passing as a small detail and the choking of Padme is not even mentioned. No aspects of childbirth were mentioned and the term “pregnancy” wasn’t even mentioned, Padme was said to be “expecting a baby” and that’s about it. Completely kid friendly, like I said. I like how solid the covers of this book are and how thin yet nice feeling the pages were. I love how short and fast paced the book was. The only detriment, I personally feel, is that the author’s name is not mentioned on the front cover. It’s only mentioned on the first page in the inside of the book AFTER the cover. I feel like for such a good job the author should definitely get clearer credit for his retelling. However I guess that’s just how Little Golden Books goes. But that’s the ONLY flaw to the entire book, and is clearly not even a fault of the author’s. So I loved this book!! I’d definitely recommend it for kids of ALL ages, and as a fantastic bedtime story to climb in bed with your kiddo and snuggle close under the blankets as they fall asleep. It’s definitely told in a comforting way as a bedtime story overall. Plus the book is super small and an average size, so easy to store but the perfect size for your kid’s little hands to grab and hold. Another small flaw that is not the fault of the author is I feel like with kids the pages are so flimsy I feel like any mess that would get on them (drinks, food, etc.) would definitely not come off and would soak in. I myself found major comfort in this retelling of this story. 

nessietwihard02's review

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5.0

I love how Little Golden Books transform my beloved Star Wars Series into a child friendly version

meg_elyse's review

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3.0

There is a lot that goes unexplained between the end of The Attack of the Clones Golden Book and the beginning of The Revenge of the Sith Golden Book, and I'm trying to remember if the movies do the same thing.

lostinmylibrary's review

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2.0

That was the weirdest (and definitely the darkest) Little Golden Book I've ever read. But it being dark didn't mean it couldn't have also been good! Here are the things I would have fixed:
1) Anakin, what have they done to you? You look like an old man with a bad face lift and a worse wig. Based on the rest of the art in this series, I'm confident they could have done better.
2) There was absolutely no mention of Uncle Owen until the very last page, which made the whole thing seem like it came out of nowhere. Even just a tiny sentence in the previous book would have helped.
3) I totally get why you didn't want to show Anakin in full lava-monster form. But if you're going to say "Obi-Wan strikes Anakin and sends him tumbling into the lava below," you can't keep drawing pictures of them fighting on a bridge. If it's confusing to me, it will definitely be confusing for the small children that this book is (allegedly) aimed at.
4) Again with the "I get it but you've gotta do something": Palpatine transforming into Darth Sidious. He doesn't look like the same guy and there's nothing in the illustrations that would explain it. It's really jarring.
5) There's absolutely no resolution to the Anakin-wants-to-save-Padmé plot, which is kind of the whole point.
Some other things that I would necessarily fix but that I found super funny:
1) After Padmé tells Anakin that she's pregnant, the need for emphasis is hilarious. "Anakin is happy!"
2) Was Padmé "perish[ing] of a broken heart" really necessary? I get that it allegedly happened, but...really? And it's just so dramatic for a kid's book.
3) Golden Books really don't know what to do with babies. Luke and Leia look like tiny gremlins. But in a hilariously adorable way?
4) "Anakin is happy!" really deserves a second bullet point.
Also thanks for not including the massacre of the younglings in a book for tiny children that would have been pretty scarring.
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