Book #66 of 2018:
Star Wars: So You Want to Be a Jedi? by Adam Gidwitz
This junior novelization of the second Star Wars film is a significant step down from The Princess, The Scoundrel, and the Farmboy, which was author Alexandra Bracken’s similar take on A New Hope. Whereas Bracken splits her story into three different sections, each from the perspective of one of the lead characters, Adam Gidwitz approaches his assignment primarily through the second-person. Most of the book asks readers to imagine they’re Luke Skywalker living the events of the movie (“You are lying in a medical bed aboard a Rebel starcruiser. You flex the muscles in your right arm.”), interspersed with meditation lessons to try at home (“Stand on one foot or put a book on your head. Count to ten. Okay? Now, while still balancing, say your telephone number backward.”).
I actually find the the latter chapters to be an enjoyably goofy way of teaching mindfulness behaviors to kids under the guise of Jedi philosophy, although it’s an odd fit for a retelling of The Empire Strikes Back. But the passages about Luke are often clunky, and on the occasions when Gidwitz needs to cut away to show what other characters are up to, the third-person perspective floats around without any cohesive anchor. The result is a remarkably poor rendition of a sci-fi story we know can be great.
★☆☆☆☆
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 
Leave a comment