The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy
by Alexandra Bracken
If your son is anything like mine, it is almost impossible to get him to read outside of his allotted “required reading” for school. The summer has always been a struggle for me as a Mom — trying to maintain some sense of a schedule and mental stimulation while also trying to allow my children to rest. Their academic calendar years always seem so jam-packed and I sometimes wonder if on some instinctual and base physical level, they need the months of summer to recuperate and catch up on all of the sleep and rest they have lost. Between the rigorous training that attaining his black belt involved, a basketball season with late games and extra practices, pushing through his first year of middle school like a champ — it all left my 11-year old son feeling mentally drained, but I pushed on, determined to get some reading in this summer.
My son did not learn to read until the summer right before he entered the 4th grade. He was identified as having a learning disability at age 4 and was formally diagnosed with a “short term memory” disability when he was in the 3rd grade. To give you an idea as to how his disability works: just imagine reading a paragraph of text. Then imagine moving to the next paragraph, but having completely forgotten the first paragraph you read. Because of this disability, we have had to find countless ways to work around things. In most areas we were successful early on — memorization was our friend. Math was always easy because while “write” and “right” sound exactly the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings, 1 + 1 is ALWAYS 2. Our final struggle and most arduous battle was reading. How can you teach a child to read when the task is so daunting and to be honest, at times so humiliating that they feel absolutely defeated? Well, I’ll tell you. You find a story that they know. A story that they know inside and out and all they have to do is put words on paper to the story in their head — this was our recipe for success.
Star Wars: The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy is essentially the retelling of the movie Star Wars: A New Hope (or Episode 4, if you’d prefer). Lovers of the iconic series set in a fantasy land of space and time, with rebels and empires and one memorable villain, know the story inside and out. A princess leading a rebellion against an evil empire hooks up with a handsome rogue who provides her with a sturdy ship. A once immature and naive boy begins to learn the secrets of The Force from an old and wizened Jedi Master in disguise. But the novel, the first of three, digs deeper into the lives of the three central characters. Each section is focused on one of the players, allowing members of this particular fandom to delve right into the very heart and core of what makes these people tick. While there isn’t a ton of extra or new information, the story is told in a fluid manner (something not easy to accomplish, given the focus of each character) and is fresh and crisp. Author Alexandra Bracken has a way of retelling a story that most people already know in a way that makes it appear new, and the writing style is extremely friendly to readers of all ages — including those 10-year old boys who lament over not ever being able to find something worthwhile to read.
I give this book a 5 out of 5 star rating, and I recommend it to any lover of Star Wars, of fantasy, and of lands far, far away. I recommend it to any boy or girl who wants to lose themselves in richly drawn characters that they can look up to — a princess who is smart and capable and no one’s snowflake, a scoundrel who is more than he appears and carries with him a sly sense of humor and a heart of gold, and a farm boy who will find within himself something that brews strong and ancient and a lineage to write home about.
Readers will enjoy the other two tales in this three-part series:
- Star Wars, A New Hope: The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy by Alexandra Bracken
- Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back: So You Want to be a Jedi? by Adam Gidwitz
- Star Wars, Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side! by Tom Angleberger
On Amazon.com, readers can find all three of the books in a bundle for under $35 — which is a steal. They are hardcover and gorgeous. I love the clever designs and colors. Disney and Lucasfilm Press did an amazing job putting these together. Not only are all three incredibly well written, but the illustrations are unique and flawless.
