Star Wars Unfolds: The Original Trilogy

Star Wars Unfolds: The Original Trilogy, illustrated by Titmouse, book design by Jade Rector

     This young reader presents a very simple concept in a quite innovative and creative way. It tells the story of the original trilogy, but only in quotes. These quotes go along with an ever-moving panorama of connected pop-out images that are taken straight from the "Galaxy of Adventures" animated shorts. The quotes are mostly well-chosen (but more on that below), spanning a wide breadth of characters, and the artwork is a lot of fun. Looking at the cover to the left, you can probably see that the central rectangle is indented--this is the first image on the panorama of pop-out illustrations. See how the internal pages look with this panorama below.

     As to how the book is divided, the movies are seamlessly strung together by way of the connected panorama of images, but I did do a quick count and there are 11 quotes from A New Hope, 8 from Empire Strikes Back, and 5 from Return of the Jedi. I'm guessing the reason why A New Hope has so many more quotes is because it is setting up the various characters involved as well as the crux of the story. It was interesting how the creators of this book went about choosing quotes that represented the most important story points in each of the movies. I did notice, oddly enough, that some of the quotes are from the middle or the end of the action, thus rollercoastering the reader awkwardly through the timeline. Take note of the image above for an example where the first quote from Return of the Jedi is the end of the confrontation with Jabba. And one of the quotes for A New Hope was a truly strange choice: "Get in there you big, furry oaf! I don't care what you smell," from Han. So I'm definitely intrigued by what directed their quote choices.
     In regards to the artwork, Leia especially gets some great illustrations as she shows determination and strength in the face of adversity (see the two images below).

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There aren't really any other books quite like this one, but I'll go ahead and list some that cover the Original Trilogy and were written with kids in mind.
The Chewbacca Story adapted by Benjamin Harper
A New Hope: A Big Golden Book adapted by Geof Smith
The Original Trilogy Stories written by several authors

And here is another Galaxy of Adventures based young reader:
Galaxy of Adventures: Heroes and Villains (World of Reading Level 2) by Ella Patrick
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     So a beautiful and intriguing book design and concept, but at a list price of $19.99, I wouldn't necessarily say the price is worth what you get content wise. But it's listed for under $11 on Amazon and that is a much more digestible cost. Either way, this is a fun format for reliving the original trilogy and just might make your little Star Wars fan's day.