A New Class

I read this with my 7yo son. When we finished the book, I asked him how many stars he gave it. To my surprise he said “three.” He gives most of the books we read together five stars.

I asked him why he gave it only three stars. “I didn't like it as much as the other book.” After a few more questions he said that the other books in the series had “better comics” and “he liked Roan better.”

I agree with him on these points, though I'd probably have given this book four stars.

I think Jarrett Krosoczka had a hard act to follow. He did a good job of trying to take the series in a new direction. Despite being a big Jeffrey Brown fan, I liked Krosoczka's illustrations. However, the comics in this book were a disappointment. In the earlier books the Ewok Pilot comic was used throughout the book and was always funny. Roan drew them for the school newspaper and his journal entries were peppered with them. The Ewok Pilot comics showed Roan looking at the funny side of what was happening to him, even when he thought things were pretty bad. In the new book, The Huttfield, Wookie Circus and Younglings comics were a humorous take on Garfield, Family Circus and Peanuts. They didn't serve the same purpose, and often felt like filler. I'm fairly certain that they weren't drawn by Victor Starspeeder, but this was never really clear.

And that brings us to Victor Starspeeder himself. He didn't have the same depth as Roan Novachez did in the earlier books. Of course, Jeffrey Brown developed Roan's characters over three books. Krosoczka has only written this book. Even so, Roan in the first Jedi Academy book felt more developed (both the comics and the letters to his brother helped with this). Victor's circle of friends also felt more one dimensional, though his relationship with his sister was interesting.

The antagonist in this book was more of a traditional antagonist. Though not evil, it's pretty clear he's not a nice guy. In the earlier books, the baddies weren't all bad. Roan learned to see thing from their point of view. He learned to see how he might be making things worse. He learned from his mistakes and tried to fix them. There was a bit of that here, but there was a lot less grey area than in the original series. One of the things I loved about the earlier books were the conversations I had with my son about what Roan was going through. There was a lot less of that with this book.

It feels unfair that most of this review has been a comparison to the earlier books in the series, but it's difficult not to compare them. The book itself is a good read, but inevitably you find yourself comparing it to other books in the series.

If you enjoyed the first three books, I'd still recommend you read this one. Just be ready for some departures from what you came to expect from Jedi Academy.

Even though he didn't like this book as much as the first three, my son still wants to read Krosoczka's Lunch Lady series.