Star Wars author talks about kids’ understanding of the Force

What do kids think of the Force? That was the question that author Preeti Chhibber had to think about when writing the upcoming kids book A Jedi You Will Be, set during Luke’s Jedi training in Empire Strikes Back.

“It was really fun to write because you really have to think about what the Force means to little kids,” Chhibber explained, “and how they engage with that idea of the Force and philosophical things.”

So how do they know the Force? “I think kids are much smarter than sometimes people tend to give them credit for. Rather than just this magical thing, understanding that the Force is exactly what Yoda says it is, it’s this energy that flows in everything. And understanding what that means to kids is that ‘you are connected to all the things, and you should be conscientious of that.”

Beyond mastering the master’s speech pattern, Chhibber’s biggest challenge was to make sure that he wasn’t “too professorly.”

“He gets a little angry in the movie, sometimes, which might be a little scary for little kids. So it was always making sure that there was this understanding and kindness that came through. Both from [Mike Deas’] illustrations and within the text itself.”

A Jedi You Will Be will be released by Disney Books on October 6.

Chhibber made the comments during a Comic-Con @ Home panel, posted this afternoon on Comic-Con International’s YouTube channel.