"a Little Golden Book: The Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi" by Christopher Nicholas

"a Little Golden Book: The Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi" written by Christopher Nicholas, illustrated by Ron Cohee

Ugh, this book had SO much potential!!! I mean, look at that epic cover with Obi-Wan riding Boga the Varactyl!! Instead of digging deep into truly meaningful moments of Obi-Wan's life though (and there is SO much material to pull from), the book took a very broad strokes approach. 

For instance, it says he fought "Sith" and shows an illustration of Darth Maul and Dooku without naming them. It says he fought "ruthless bounty hunters" and shows the fight on Kamino with Jango Fett without naming him. And it says he fought "frightening monsters," again, showing the Acklay, Nexu, and Reek without naming them (see the adorable yet spooky arena beasts below). Now I've seen "Little Golden Books" with some hefty word inclusion so I don't know why they couldn't have added in some names to at least give the book a bit of depth.

 The only prequel era enemy named was General Grievous, but here they missed an opportunity to introduce the word cyborg to young readers. Instead, the phrase "half-living, half-machine" is used. Later, to describe Vader, the phrase "half-man, half-machine" is used. It would've been better to introduce the word "cyborg" when mentioning Grievous and then repeat the word without the definition for Vader. I've seen some really great methods used in some of these early readers to familiarize children with new words so I know they could have done that here.

When we get to the part about Anakin, we see this ominous sentence--"But Obi-Wan's greatest challenge was training a young Padawan named Anakin Skywalker."--above an adorable picture of little Padawan Ani from the end of TPM with newly minted knight Obi-Wan (see below). The contrast of a cloudy and difficult future with such a happy moment is very effective. But the next page immediately goes to Anakin becoming Vader and that's that. I was SO disappointed by this!! Anakin was an IMMENSELY important part of Obi-Wan's life. It was so much more than just "things were difficult" and then "Anakin went evil." They became family during "The Clone Wars." They laughed, they argued, they kept secrets, they changed each other in positive ways--I just can't believe all of this depth of character and relationship building was left on the cutting room floor...*tear*

Then the book decides to spend several spreads on Luke...why is it always freaking Luke?? We get it, everybody loves him, awesome. But Luke didn't define Obi-Wan as a person...Anakin had a huge hand in that. In this book, it says, "Obi-Wan must have been proud as Luke saved Darth Vader from the dark side of the Force." Uhh...just proud of Luke?? Not super happy to see his long-lost brother Anakin back in the light side of the Force?? I don't know, y'all, this really irritates me. 

But it doesn't end with Luke! We are treated to a beautiful two-page spread of Rey deflecting Palpatine's lightning back at him on Exegol with Force-busts of six of the Jedi who tell Rey to "rise!" (see below). It really is a wonderful spread--Rey's fierce look of determination and Palpatine's vivid anger. But it would've been even better if the hovering Jedi had included Ahsoka, Luminara, Adi Gallia, Kanan, and Aayla Secura, the other five Jedi who helped Rey to "rise!" For all its epicness, it still feels incomplete.  

We end with, "Obi-Wan Kenobi, one of the greatest Jedi in history, had helped bring peace to the galaxy again! Hooray for Obi-Wan!" Wait...what?!? He barely said anything to Rey. I think it is much more her will power and strength of character that defeats Palpatine than a few words from Obi-Wan... I would go so far as to say even Luke, who "trained" her...mostly just giving her metaphysical lessons, only very tangentially helped Rey on her path to the ultimate victory against evil.

So overall, the illustrations were top-notch, but the narrative itself was lacking specificity and depth. I know, I know, it's just a children's book. But from my perspective, children should be given more credit in what they are able to take in and absorb. I really do feel like this book could have benefitted from giving just a bit more.