Three Disney Channel Junior Novelization Books

Growing up, I loved reading junior novelizations of movies. I would most often read them before a movie came out that I was interested in, but sometimes I’d read them afterwards to help get me through the gap between theatrical and home video release. When it came to TV shows, I only really read books if they were new, original stories that expanded the series. However, my parents understood that even though the content wasn’t quite the classic literature they’d prefer to see me explore, reading anything was better than nothing.

Disney Channel continues to encourage kids to read, even if the stories are retreads of things they’ve already seen countless times on the hit cable network. Disney has recently published junior novelizations based on two of their hit series, Girl Meets World and Liv and Maddie, plus one of their latest DCOM phenomenons Teen Beach 2. I read all three, here are my opinions.

Girl Meets World BookGirl Meets World: Follow Your Heart retells the story of two episodes, Girl Meets Boy and Girl Meets Sneak Attack. In the first story, Maya helps Riley overcome her nerves about talking to the cute boy at school, Lucas. When Corey gives them assignment that takes away their phones, Riley gains the confidence she needs to communicate with her crush. In the second part, Riley learns the importance of not trying to grow up too quickly when a new girl tries to steal Lucas’ attention. Alexa Young has done a fine job translating the show’s humor to the page, while also adding some insight into Riley’s thoughts. It doesn’t expand the series in any way, but is a faithful recreation.

Liv and Maddie BookLiv and Maddie: Double Trouble follows this same approach, based on the episodes Sweet-16-A-Rooney and Dodge-A-Rooney. Liv and Maddie disagree on how to spend their 16th birthday and feelings get hurt. But when Liv learns from her mom that they were actually born on either side of midnight and technically have different birthdays, she throws Maddie a surprise party to make things right. In the second story, Liv and Maddie both get assigned to the same community service project working at a senior citizens home. The two decide to have a dodge ball war to determine which activity they will do for their project.

Teen Beach 2Teen Beach 2  retells the entire story of this musical sequel to the first film. It mentions some of the songs and describes the emotions conveyed and manages to do a great job with translating the film as a book. Brady and Mack are approaching the end of high school and missing the friends they made last summer when they found themselves inside the film Wet Side Story. But when the film’s main characters, Lela and Tanner, show up in their world, the film begins to disappear. They’re in a race against time to get them back and if they fail, it will be like Brady and Mack never met since their first encounter happened because that movie existed.

All three books are about the same size, barely over 100 pages, and they are all softcover. Another common theme is they all feature a section of pictures in the middle. If you or your kids love Disney Channel and need a little extra encouragement to read a book, any of these would be find choices. I would prefer to see Disney Press focus more on offering original stories with these characters, but the authors have done a good job with translating something you can easily watch on Disney Channel into something you can take with you anywhere you go.

Alex Reif
Alex joined the Laughing Place team in 2014 and has been a lifelong Disney fan. His main beats for LP are Disney-branded movies, TV shows, books, music and toys. He recently became a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA).