Star Wars: Battle Cries: Creatures vs. Aliens: Sounds from the Showdown by Pablo Hidalgo

Star Wars: Battle Cries: Creatures vs. Aliens: Sounds from the Showdown written by Pablo Hidalgo, illustrated by Scott Park

     This is a super cute young reader book that sets up some very interesting...albeit I'm not sure how canon they are...stories while pitting non-sentient creatures against sentient aliens. The book explains that aliens are intelligent life forms, have language, and use tools whereas creatures are usually unintelligent life forms, often do not have language, and are physically powerful. So creature-wise, we're only talking about the big nasties for the most part. Some of the situations are wild and crazy which makes this a fun and funny read. Plus there's sound buttons embedded in the book such that each creature and alien has an audio clip of the sounds it makes!! It's really neat how they pulled this off. And the artwork is just precious!!
     There are 5 different creature vs. alien matchups including:
1. Wookiee vs. Sarlacc
2. Ewok vs. Wampa
3. Tusken Raider vs. Tauntaun
4. Geonosian vs. Rancor
5. Jawas vs. Rathtar
     My only issue is that the matchups do not come to definitive conclusions. They leave it very open ended in regards to who wins...but then maybe that's a fun thing for us fans to figure out! I guess I just really like knowing how things turn out...oh well.
     Each creature and alien is rated against the following criteria: intelligence, strength, agility, damage, fighting skills, and courage. All criteria are out of 10. We get the following info on each alien: homeworld, average height, known for, and traditional weapons. And we get the same info on each creature except we learn their natural weapons.
     The Ewok vs. Wampa story is my favorite (see the fight below). It says that a shaman requested a powdered horn of a snow beast for a mystical ceremony but the shaman doesn't want the snow beast killed so the Ewoks sent to retrieve it must be very crafty. Like I said, crazy situations.

     The Tusken Raider vs. Tauntaun story was the funniest (see the fight below). Apparently, a tauntaun escaped from Jabba's zoo (didn't know he had a zoo!!) and some teenaged Tuskens out completing their rite of passage ritual to track down and bond with a wild bantha found the mysterious looking tauntaun and took it as an omen. I love that this one says the tauntaun is "gurgling and spitting." Haha...typical.

So a fun little read that sheds some light on a few creatures and aliens with some interesting stories to boot. And the sound effects just make it all the better.