You’d be hard pressed to find a youngling who can’t tell you at least a little bit about Luke Skywalker and his adventures, even if they’ve never seen “a Star War.” That’s because there are tons of products aimed at kids too young for the saga that empowers them with everything they need to know. A new book from Disney•Lucasfilm Press uses characters from a galaxy far, far away to teach kids about their emotions called Star Wars: Search Your Feelings (Galactic Basic Edition).
Twenty emotions are presented with a character for each and a poem that describes the moment in the saga that corresponds with that character having those feelings. This encompasses the Original Trilogy, the Prequel Trilogy, and the Sequel Trilogy. The emotions and characters represented are:
- Excited – Young Annakin
- Jealous – Adult Annakin
- Embarassed – Jar Jar Binks
- Afraid – Padme
- Suspicious – Mace Windu
- Hopeful – Princess Leia (Original Trilogy)
- Confused – Storm Trooper
- Confident – Han Solo
- Disgusted – Princess Leia (Original Trilogy)
- Calm – Yoda
- Guilty – Lando
- Surprised – Luke (Original Trilogy)
- Anxious – C-3PO
- Sad – RD-D2
- Determined – Rey
- Lonely – Luke (Sequel Trilogy)
- Angry – Kylo Ren
- Frustrated – Chewbacca
- Distracted – Finn
- Happy – BB-8
The poems are written by Calliope Glass and Caitlin Kennedy and offer some fun rhymes, informing kids about some key moments in the saga. The emotions are presented in the order of these moments, somewhat telling the entire saga from The Phantom Menace through The Force Awakens, although it’s not a linear story.
The artwork is provided by Katie Cook, who has transformed the Star Wars characters into adorable drawings that borrow from Japan’s kawaii movement. Their eyes are bigger and their expressions over exaggerated, making the emotions easy to read at first glance. There are also a lot of cute nods in the illustrations. My favorite of these is on the page for “Sad” where the text is about R2, but Leia is in the background consoling Chewbacca and Kaydel Ko Connix is behind her. Kaydel is played by Carrie Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd.
This release is by the same authors and illustrator as Star Wars: ABC-3PO, which was aimed at a slightly younger audience. Star Wars: Search Your Feelings is aimed at kids ages 6 and up and is a perfect way to help them understand their feelings and emotions to be more in tune with the force. It will also help them understand the characters of the saga in preparation for their first time seeing all of the films.