Star Wars Epic Yarns Is a Delight
Okay, a book with only twelve words isn’t exactly targeted at my demographic. 
That said, I’m shamelessly fond of Star Wars: Epic Yarns by brothers Jack and Holman Wang for combining two of my favorite things: crafts and Star Wars. Each of the three books reduces one of the movies from the original Star Wars trilogy to twelve words with an accompanying scene portrayed by needle-felted recreations of the characters.
I caught their presentation at San Diego Comic Con and had to rush down to the sales floor to buy a copy of my own the moment the panel ended. It did not disappoint. The simplicity of these beautiful needle-felted characters belies the tremendous amount of time and effort that went into making them. While little characters like Yoda took around 20 hours to complete, many of the larger characters took up to 60 hours each to be built.
Aside from the lightsabers and force lightening, everything was done by hand and scenes were shot traditionally on mini sound stages; there are no composites or digital manipulation of images. The fog on Dagobah, for example, was created the old fashioned way with dry ice.
This is hands down one of the most creative and original books I’ve ever had the pleasure to own. It makes a charming coffee table book for adult Star Wars fans and is a great introduction to the Star Wars universe for children too young to really enjoy the movies. I don’t have any kids but the book seems very durable and likely to hold up well under the duress of an enthusiastic toddler, and the corners are rounded with little ones in mind.
The only danger in reading this book is the temptation to run out and buy a mountain of needle-felting supplies.
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