Licensed Character Books
The Very Latest In Wearable Tech…
Recently, I wrote a Lilo & Stitch activity book called The Galactic Federation Nighttime Handbook. It’s out NOW from Scholastic! And the reason this is a “Nighttime Handbook” is that many of the activities and writing prompts in the book are sleep-themed. That is, they revolve around concepts such as sleep, dreams, the stars in the night sky, pajamas, your bedtime routine, and that sort of thing. So if you’re looking for a book that will help your kid get into the right frame of mind to power down and get ready for bed each night, this book should do the trick.
Here’s the official publisher description of The Galactic Federation Nighttime Handbook:
Greetings, Citizen of Earth! Welcome to the Galactic Federation! Experiment 626, also referred to as “Stitch,” is away on an interplanetary mission. In his place, he’s recommended you to help the Federation complete some very important tasks! To be a successful Galactic Federation operative, you’ll need to think and act like one. The activities and writing prompts in The Galactic Federation Nighttime Handbook will help you do so. In addition, you’ll be the first to use the Galactic Federation’s newest piece of wearable tech: the Supreme Lateral Energized Exoskeletal Polygonal Multifaceted Auxiliary Sensory Kudzuscope, or S.L.E.E.P. M.A.S.K.
That’s right, the book comes with a free Stitch-themed sleep mask, which is blue, furry, and super-adorable. However, I decided to make the sleep mask part of the book’s narrative. So, as the book’s official description explains, this is no mere sleep mask. It’s actually a piece of wearable tech, called the “S.L.E.E.P. M.A.S.K.” And in order to complete some of the activities in the book, you’ve got to wear the S.L.E.E.P. M.A.S.K. while you complete said activities!
(But that only applies to a handful of the activities in this book. For most of them, you don’t need to wear the S.L.E.E.P. M.A.S.K.)
And I should also mention that this book is only available for distribution through the school market. In other words, it’s exclusively available through Scholastic Reading Events, so you won’t be able to find it on Amazon or on Barnes & Noble’s website.
However, you CAN get it via this website.
Last but definitely not least, if you’d like to see some of the other books I’ve written for Scholastic over the years, you can click HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Shirtless Lou Fan Art!
Some time ago, I wrote a LEGO Star Wars book called The Official Stormtrooper Training Manual, which was published by Scholastic in 2016. I decided to write it from the POV of a stormtrooper. So the idea is that an ordinary, lunkheaded stormtrooper is narrating the book. On the spread which deals with the “AT-AT” vehicles, I wrote the following joke (among many others):
“The AT-AT is often the first thing sent into a combat zone. The LAST thing sent onto a combat zone is a stormtrooper named ‘Shirtless Lou,’ who has the words WE WON painted on his belly.”
And I didn’t think anything more of the joke after that. After all, it was just one joke in a book filled with them. BUT…
Before long, there was a Wookieepedia page devoted to Shirtless Lou. Here’s how the folks at Wookieepedia described this hapless stormtrooper:
“Lou, nicknamed ‘Shirtless Lou,’ was a human male stormtrooper of the Galactic Empire. He was considered to be the last thing sent into combat zones, as he had the words ‘WE WON’ painted on his belly.”
And among the customer reviews for The Official Stormtrooper Training Manual on Amazon, there was one review that was largely about Shirtless Lou. Here’s an excerpt from that review:
“The text is full of silly jokes that crack my 5 year old Star Wars superfan up. There’s a reference to ‘Shirtless Lou,’ the last stormtrooper to go into battle, that made him laugh so hard that I
ordered the Batman-in-swimsuit minifigure and swapped that torso with a stormtrooper so he could have his own Shirtless Lou, and he plays with him all the time. Shirtless Lou is always doing something silly during stormtrooper training and causing Captain Phasma all kinds of headaches.”
Pretty cool, eh?
(Now, if all this sounds weirdly familiar to you, that might be because I wrote a blog post on May 4, 2023, in which I talked about the Shirtless Lou Amazon customer review and the Shirtless Lou Wookieepedia page. You can read it HERE.)
But now there’s a NEW chapter in the saga of Shirtless Lou, because Graham Allen put up some Shirtless Lou fan art on cohost.org. You can see it on that website if you click HERE.
And I’ve also pasted Graham’s Shirtless Lou fan art immediately below. Just FYI: if you’re wondering what those glyphs on Shirtless Lou’s stomach are, they’re the words “We Won,” written in Aurebesh, a writing system which is used to represent Galactic Basic Standard, the most commonly-used language within the Star Wars universe. Thanks for the wonderful drawing, Graham!
What’s next? A Shirtless Lou comic book? A Shirtless Lou prose novel? Will Shirtless Lou turn up in season 2 of Andor? Who knows?
The X-Men Little Golden Book Is Out NOW!
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I wrote a children’s book called The X-Men Little Golden Book, which came out TODAY from Penguin Random House. It’s an adaptation of X-Men: The Animated Series, the iconic TV series from the 1990s. I think the book really turned out well and I’m very proud of it. The X-Men LGB was illustrated by Shane Clester, who did an X-cellent job. (See what I did there?)
And as I type this, The X-Men Little Golden Book is already the #1 New Release in Children’s Superhero Fiction on Amazon!
Here’s the official publisher description of the book:
Inspired by the 1990’s animated series , Marvel’s mightiest mutants—the X-Men—arrive to save the day in their first ever Little Golden Book! Perfect for kids 2 to 5 as well as collectors and fans of all ages.
Born with amazing mutant abilities and trained by Dr. Charles Xavier, the X-men stand ready to defend the world even though that world doesn’t always trust them. These action-packed full-color pages will introduce Wolverine, Rogue, Storm, Cyclops and the other mutants on their team as well as their friends and foes. Kids 2 to 5—along with Marvel fan and collectors—will love this Little Golden Book based on X-Men: The Animated Series.
You can order the book HERE and HERE.
And to see all of the other books I’ve written for Penguin Random House, click HERE.