Star Wars Attack of the Clones - Anakin: Apprentice
by Marc Cerasini, illustrated by Tommy Lee Edwards

Published by Random House

Scott's Rating:   4 out of 4

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This is a "Step Into Reading" book from Scholastic. It is intended for Grades 2 - 4 and is written for beginning readers.

In this book, Anakin and Obi-Wan learn that they have been assigned to protect Padme. As they go to meet her, Anakin remembers his time training as a Jedi Padawan. He recalls building robots that run around the Jedi Temple, a training battledroid that attacked Mace Windu, racing in the lower levels of Coruscant, and more. He also recalls constructing his lightsaber as depicted in the Jedi Quest book "Path to Truth". The book ends with Anakin and Obi-Wan heading into Padme's apartment as seen in the movie.

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Scott:

    While being a great tool for teaching children to read, this book is a nice treat for Star Wars literature fans. There are several reasons for this. It gives backstory to what was seen in the movie, it summarizes what happened in some of the other young reader books and adult books (Rogue Planet), and it adds a few new events to the life of Anakin Skywalker. It's a nice quick look at the life of Anakin between Episode I and II.

Cerasini adds a bit of humor to this otherwise tragic character in this book. His tinkering with droids is really funny, especially when one goes berserk in a training session with Mace Windu. Nice to see the Chosen One is not perfect. He also adds some cool information about Anakin's racing hobbies on Coruscant as a teenager. It's very much in the spirit of what George Lucas envisioned.

Finally, I can't rave enough about the art of Tommy Lee Edwards. It's a nice blend of the styles of Drew Struzan, Hugh Fleming, and his own original touches. Edwards does a beautiful job drawing unique droids, cool aliens, and awesome vehicles which Anakin races. He also does a good job drawing Anakin in some state between the look of Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen. He also adds a unique sketchbook that Anakin works on featuring drawings of Padme. It's all very well done.

This is one worth picking up even if you're an adult fan.

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Scott:

    No gripes at all!

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Scott:

    The Gorgodons look like a mix between the Alien Queen and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Cool!

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