Hello - question for those teaching Star wars

[sonjaryberg]

Hi,

My name is Sonja, and I've been using Star Wars for a few years now to introduce archetypes with my 10th grade literature classes.  Unfortunately, we don't actually get to read the novelization, so the most I've been able to do is give background info and show the Legacy Revealed documentary that covers many of the archetypes in the movies.  I've been trying to convince my department to buy at least a class set of novels, but we can only find a few copies here and there or the Scholastic version which is too young for my kids. If anyone out there actually gets to read the novelization with their kids, would you mind telling me where you got your copies?

Thanks,

Sonja

[Janice Liedl]

Sounds fabulous, Sonja! I assume you're talking about the novelization of "A New Hope" (IV). Lucas's novelization (actually written by Alan Dean Foster) is widely available and it's not the Scholastic adaptation. There's a 1986 version that's in current print from LucasBooks - 978-0345341464 is the ISBN and I find it available from a number of vendors. I still have my 1977 paperback, held together with tape and love and this is the same text as that original novelization.

I'd consider pairing that with Ian Doescher's "William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope" which shows how the archetypes parallels those in Shakespeare, an example which never hurts.He's got all the movies covered in smart, charming revisions that my first-year students university students adore and they might be a good substitution for the novelization, depending on how you want to teach the topic.

Janice Liedl