Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Vol. 9

When this series of short comic stories done in the style of Cartoon Network's Clone Wars cartoons started back in 2004, I was pretty tepid-- how much for a book that small? The first volume, by regular Republic writer Haden Blackman, didn't really impress either. But my determination to gather all literary incarnations of the saga of the Clone Wars demanded I go on, and so I did. Fortunately, the series improved with time, as the writers came to understand the kinds of stories the highly visually stylized art was best suited to tell. And because of that, some of the best stories have been consistently penned by the Fillbach Brothers, who first began serving on the series as artists. This of course made the prospect of Volume 9, as an show more all-Fillbach spectacular, highly appealing to me. And fortunately, it did not disappoint. It features four stories of the usual types in this series-- a dialogue-light "giant creature" story, a clone trooper story, a spy story, and battling Jedi story-- and pulls them all off with aplomb. Mindless fun, but superbly done mindless fun. Though it probably took me longer to write this review than it did to read the book. (originally written December 2007) show less

In Volume #9 of Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures there are 4 short, illustrated stories: Appetite for Adventure, Salvaged, Life Below, and No Way Out.

These four stories are told in comic-form with all text being found in conversation balloons.

I looked to see what the Reading level is but couldn't locate one. I can say though that my 8 year-old can read them. (Keep in mind though he's a fairly proficient reader)

As far as content, it's standard adventure fair mixed with humor. The first story, in fact, is entirely humorous and my son and I had a good time sharing it. The other three stories were more of what I expected -- which is 'here's a snippet of life in the era of Star Wars. One story is about Quinlan Vos, and another about Mace show more Windu. There are strange creatures, good guys, bad guys, BAMM!, POW!, and a lot of fancy lightsaber work.

I know some moms would rather cut up their library cards than have their kids read this type of book, but I think it's got a place in our life. Besides scratching that 'Star War's itch' I think it makes a great read for those times when kids are tired and just want something light and fun. And I'd rather my son pick this up and read it than to skip a night and get out of the habit of doing his 20 minutes every night. show less

This story is a graphic novel that contains Star Wars themes and characters. It probably would not be good to use for a classroom, since Star Wars is mainly for males, but the concept of the graphic novel is still a GREAT one to use when teaching students. Students can take reading comprehension strategies to a new level when they have to make inferences from text, solely based on pictures and quotes. Students could also create a graphic novel of their own, pertaining to the social studies or science unit they are studying! Great to use!
Type: Picture book/graphic novel - advanced
Genre: Graphic Novel
Pictures: painted