Goodnight Darth Vader
Written and Illustrated by
Jeffrey Brown
Published by Chronicle Books
Jeffrey Brown's whimsical take on the Star Wars Universe is absolutely perfectly parent-and-kid friendly and I first encountered his series of homages to Star Wars with the "Darth Vader and Son" postcard book my wife thoughtfully bought me for my last birthday.
Jeffrey is a confirmed Star Wars geek and a dad, and it's not hard to see how he's married the two together to produce a successful series of books that are charming and cute and a great way to introduce your kids to Star Wars, if they're not already running around the garden making "P-tew P-tew" or "Whooaaaaaagh!" noises while pretending to be Luke, Leia or Darth.
As Darth settles his jedi-some twins down for the evening, he tells a story of all the characters right across the empire and beyond, settling down for the night. Jar Jar Binks clumsily falls over his own pyjamas. Queen Amidala collapses in a heap of her own amazing garments, before getting some Zs. Even General Grievous takes out his contact lenses, brushes his teeth, washes his face and gets dressed for bed - all at the same time (you can do this when you've got four arms, you see!)
Jeffrey's rhymes might trip over themselves a little but they're fun and cute, and we loved his pencilled drawings of all the character we've come to know and love from the movies (both classic and new) and even some from the spin-off Jedi Academy and Rebels series too.
We both had a soft spot for particular scenes. Charlotte loved the idea of snuggling up in a lovely wookie-bundle in the trees on Kashykk while I rather liked the homage to "Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper as Dexter tucks away his galactic greasy spoon cafe for the night.
An awesome little pocket-sized book. Night night Darth Vader, sleep tight, don't let the Sarlaac bite!
Charlotte's best bit: Baby Wookies and Ewoks are SO CUTE!
Daddy's Favourite bit: No better way to send your little geeklets off to sleep than with a star-warsy snooze aid! A bedtime reading of this should see them well on their way to dreamland.
(Kindly sent to us for review by Chronicle Books)