Star Wars: Episode I Journal - Anakin Skywalker

Star Wars: Journals

by Todd Strasser

The events of "Star Wars Episode I," as seen through the eyes of its youngest hero, Anakin Skywalker, who must leave his home planet of Tatooine to join the Jedi ranks ... and start on the epic journey that will lead him to become Darth Vader.

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction, Childrens, Fantasy, Chapter Books, Young Adult

112 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1999

About the author

Todd Strasser is an American author of more than 130 novels for adults, young-adults, and middle graders.

His most recent novel is Summer of '69

Booklist review: "Drugs, sex, and rock 'n' roll, those hallmarks of the summer of 1969, are all here, but there's so much more. In this loosely autobiographical novel, Strasser introduces 18-year-old Lucas, who is bright and sensitive but also a screw up…. The picture painted of the Woodstock music festival shows the dark side of peace and love, and the prevalence of drugs is on almost every page…The best part of the book, however, is the one that transcends eras: Lucas' introspection as he contemplates his place in the world."

Kirkus review: "Strasser perfectly captures the golden haze of youth and life on the cusp of adulthood. Readers fascinated with this time period will find much to enjoy... Vietnam, Woodstock, road trips, and acid trips: a sweetly bittersweet, surprising, even melancholy bildungsroman set against a world in flux. Groovy, man."

His most recent young adult novel is Price of Duty:
2018 New York Public Library Best Book for Teens
“Compact and suspenseful, the novel raises important questions about war.” – Kirkus 
“This thought-provoking book is both welcome and imperative.” – Booklist * (starred review).
"Rather than attempting to sway the reader, it offers awareness." - VOYA 
“Tightly wound and compelling ... appropriate for an older middle school and high school audience. VERDICT: Highly recommended.” – School Library Journal 

Bio: Todd was born in New York City. When he was young his parents moved to Roslyn Heights, New York (Long Island). Todd went to the I.U. Willets Elementary school and then attended the Wheatley School for junior high and high school. His best subjects were math and science. He also liked to read, but he had trouble with spelling and grammar, and didn't do well in English. His favorite sports were tennis, skiing and fishing. Todd went to college at New York University for a few years, and then dropped out. He lived on a commune, then lived in Europe where he was a street musician.

All the while, Todd wrote songs and poems and lots of letters to his friends back home. Finally he decided to try being a writer. He returned to the United States and went to Beloit College where he studied literature and writing.

After college, Todd worked at the Middletown Times Herald-Record newspaper in Middletown, New York, and later at Compton Advertising in New York City. In 1978, Todd sold his first novel, Angel Dust Blues. He used the money to start the Dr. Wing Tip Shoo fortune cookie company. For the next 12 years, Todd sold more fortune cookies than books.

Todd now divides his time between writing books and speaking at schools and conferences. When he's at home, he likes to spend time with his children and dog, Cooper. He still likes to play tennis and ski, but his favorite new sport is surfing.

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good moments, but, overall, mostly a rehash of The Phantom Menace.

[Redfox5 · Rating 3 out of 5]

First I need to explain about me and Star Wars. I never watched any of the films when I was a child. I watched 'A New Hope' when I was in college, as I was teased by my teacher and class mates for never having seen it. I thought it was rubbish. I watched 'The Empire Strikes Back' after and fell asleep during it. I then watched 'A New Hope' again just to check it was the film and not me but it still was rubbish. Bizarrely when I was little I brought the script to this film. I have no idea why. And I love the Star Tours ride at Disney World, it's one of my favourites. I've come to the conclusion that I like the Star Wars universe, I just don't like the films.

This book is aimed at children, which is fine. I like kids books. Told as if it's Anakin's journal, it's based on the film but from his point of view. And yeah, it's alright. I had to keep checking Star Wars facts with my boyfriend, "Anakin is Darth Vader, right?" It makes me interested as to when he becomes the bad guy. Obviously young Star Wars fans will appreciate this the most but there is something there for even the most casual fan of the franchise.

[Lexu · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only thing of note that stands out with this book is what Anakin is capable of doing with the Force, from one piece of advice from Qui-Gon Jinn. Otherwise, just read the Episode 1 novelization. It’s not like the target audience for this journal will have to wait too much longer to be able to read it.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Out of all the Star Wars books I've read, this is probably my least favorite. Though it gave some interesting viewpoints from Anakin, the writing was bad and it made the story seem bland. There wasn't colorful language or exciting reveals- it was, "Qui-Gon said this, and I agreed with him. Then Obi-Wan did this and Qui-Gon said this and Padme asked this..."

This style of writing, as if he's recording everything in the journal, can work with some. Having no quotation marks for the people actually talking bugged me, because like I said before it's just a he said this sort of thing. With Queen Amidala's Journal, it worked. With Anakin's, it did not.

[Tina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Considering how badly this is written, I can't believe it's from the same author who wrote "The Wave". Even if I put aside the fact that I just don't like Anakin as a character, there are so many logical errors that I had to force myself to finish reading it.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute storybook geared toward younger readers, told in young Anakin Skywalker's own words, as he experienced those first several days of meeting Jedis Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi, as well as the Naboo Queen, Padme Amidala. I enjoyed it.

[Jeneé · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since all the star wars journal books were written by different authors some are more well written than others. This one in my opinion is not as well written as the darth maul one or the older ones.

[Shawna Finnigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually really enjoyed this one! It was somewhat of a novelization of the first movie, but it was all from Anakin’s perspective and it was really cute.

[Chuy Ruiz · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's alright, not much added to the story really. Mostly an Anakin focused retelling of EP I.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty blandly written. It seems to be trying to be a diary yet it alludes to future events or at least seems to have been written with future knowledge. It's as though Anakin tried to retrospectively write a diary.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book goes threw the story of how Anakin Skywalker became a strong Jedi.This book is really good and it is really detailed.I recommend this book to anyone who likes star wars or anything with space or stuff like that.

[Shawn Fairweather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yet another SW cash grab that contributed to the redundancy of the Phantom Menace story line told over and over again from multiple viewpoints (This being Anakin Skywalkers's) even though each viewpoint sees things the same exact way.

[Oxinabox · Rating 2 out of 5]

I believe this was the first "real" book I ever read.
I bought it by mistake from the scholastic catalog, thinking it was a diary to write my own stuff in.
I read it cos I was looking for where the notes started.

I donated it to the Geograph primary year 4 classroom library in 2002.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept, to show The Phantom Menace from various characters' perspectives. Gives a little extra insight into how Anakin's base personality (tendency toward anger etc) was working against him, even though he did have the *desire* (and often, the capability) to be good. It's kinda sad.

[Rose]

JF Str

[Steven Hummer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another Star Wars book I read as a kid it was ok I seem to remember that I couldn't put this down.

[Loghyn]

the best book that you have

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the best books I ever read. It really kept me on the edge of my seat. Don't read unless you have seen Star Wars.

[Miss Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the time of reading this (not long after its publication), I enjoyed this quite a bit, though not nearly as much as Amidala's.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun first person view of Anakin during the events of Episode 1. It was fun and quick to read.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

My daughter enjoys this story of Episode 1 from the perspective of Anakin. She has me read it to her at least once every few months.

[Kyle Benich · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think they did a really good job of incorporating the movie into this journal and doing it from Anakin's point of view.

[Darryl Dobbs · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pointless. A couple of small pieces of insight, but not worth reading at all. Thankfully the book was short and easy to skim through – really just rehashing the movie from another perspective.

[Sable Moreno · Rating 3 out of 5]

3
Average book, a few contradictions to other renditions of the events, specifically in character's internal dialog (especially the youth Phantim Menace retelling which has the same target audience)
It follows Anakin's remembrance of the events of the Phantom Menace after they've happened, as a way to remember everything that's happened to him, with some remeberance of events before the movie that play relevance to his knowledge of certain things going on around him.
It's written as his feelings and emotions as they happened instead of a more 'present tense' reflection on the events and reflecting on how he'd felt then (Basically it was all present tense type writing "I need to do this" instead of "I had to/I did do this"). Events were heavily skimmed in favor for shorter set up to what the scene was in the movie before shifting back to anakin's internal thoughts.

Very quick read. Only took a few of hours with multiple pauses and breaks.

[J.B. Mathias · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unlike most others I actually really liked Episode 1 despite its many flaws. However this version of the story is not great. For one thing it is missing some of the best parts of the story because it's only Anakin's version of the story. Only what he was there for is covered so things like the big final lightsaber duel was not here. I thought having Anakins parts told from his perspective did add some substance to the character that the movie lacked, it wasn't limited by the acting abilities of a child actor. All in all it was an okay read, some nostalgia. I understand why people say it was poorly written, but I think that was all intentional...it's supposed to be written like a journal written by a child...and I think the author accomplished that.

One other minor complaint is there are some inaccuracies for example some of the names of the other podracers are not correct and seem like they were made up here before there was a canonical backstory for them.

[Graff Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Wars: Episode I Journal - Anakin Skywalker by Todd Strasser

Adventurous, challenging, emotional, hopeful, inspiring, reflective, and tense.

Fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5 Stars

Again, a retelling of the events in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. The POV is through Anakin Skywalker...who's NINE years old. So, not too sure how he journaled, but I'm letting it go. I know people journal early in life (sometimes), but a slave on Tatooine? Nah. Suspension of disbelief...not achieved.

It was interesting, hearing his point of view on certain things that happened.

Love the "angel" discussion with Padme. Also, every time I hear "wizard" I chuckle.

Overall, it was cute, but not something I'll ever read again.

[K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dangerous? I had to stop myself from arguing. How could Obi-Wan say I was dangerous? He didn't even know me. But that, I realized, was the whole point. Because Obi-Wan didn't know me, he couldn't be arguing about me personally. It was the idea of me - already nine years old, but with very high midi-chlorians - that he was talking about.

Anakin, as he said, is nine. Nine year olds as a rule can be smart as hell, but this self-reflection and assessment is way beyond the normal capacity of a child. Hell, plenty of adults with both experience and a fully realized brain can't do this. I refuse to hand-wave this as ~ the will of the Force ~ but clearly I must.

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is Anakin's view of the what happened in the "Phantom Menace". Clearly the slave boy character working in a junk shop is not keeping a diary on the side, but it is written as a recollection.

Again the story is not new, but it had a few interesting thoughts about the Sith.

Finally the good/bad bit about this book. It is supposedly written by a 9 year old boy. And it does that well, so the book does feel like it was written by a nine year old boy...

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I own several books that are different versions of The Phantom Menace and this is just one of them. Wow, they sure crapped these things out! I actually like this one, because it really does read as though a 9-year-old boy wrote it. I was 10 when I first picked up this book. It was incredibly influential on my writing at the time. So while the story isn't original, I think it does have something to offer.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an obsessed PT fan and a huge Anakin fan, I loved this little journal. I love the idea of these little journals and I wish that they existed for every major character in the SW universe because it really gives you some nice insight into the character that you may otherwise never get. I really enjoyed this.