A New Star Wars Children's Book Questions What Darth Vader is Afraid Of

Image: Lucasfilm

Lucasfilm recently released a new Star Wars book called Are You Scared, Darth Vader? and it follows the adventures of the fan-favorite Sith Lord. The new children's book is the first Star Wars picture book not tied to a cinematic movie, so don't expect it to delve into the Jedi mythology or the character once known as Anakin Skywalker.

Are You Scared, Darth Vader? was written and illustrated by Adam Rex, and as you can see in the preview images below, the book teaches kids about fear but of course, with Star Wars themes fans would enjoy.

During an interview with iO9, Adam Rex talked about his idea for the book:

"I ended up pitching a few broad ideas as well as an early draft of

Are You Scared, Darth Vader?

As an idea, it has one of those unsatisfying origin stories where I think the title came to me while waiting for a stoplight and I sat down to figure out what kind of book might have a name like that.

"The biggest theme that emerged as I worked on the book is that Darth Vader is an intimidating villain, but he's

your

intimidating villain. He lives in your book, your DVD player, your imagination. He's your action figure to toy with."

Michael Siglain, Lucasfilm's executive director of publishing, explained how the book is not tied to any Star Wars film.

"With direct film tie-ins, publishing strives to make sure those titles enhance, support, or retell the films in exciting and dramatic ways. With books not directly tied to the films, but tied to the larger saga, we have opportunities for new and different approaches to the stories we can tell. Examples of this include our currentJedi Academybooks, our ShakespeareStar Warsbooks, and, obviously, the spookyAre You Scared, Darth Vader?The one common denominator in all our titles is that they're authenticallyStar Wars."

That's good to know that Lucasfilm is giving more freedom for creators to invent fresh ways to tell stories without being chained to the official Star Wars canon.

Check out the preview images below:

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