A Book by Cavan Scott

When we last left Milo and Lina Graf, they had barely escaped capture from an Imperial captain only to fly into the nest of a huge territorial monster on a not so uninhabited planet run by game hunters. With a newly repaired hyperdrive module on their ship, and a possible new lead for them to pursue, the kids once again try to find help on a planet with a less-than-stellar reputation. As you can imagine, due to their lack of street smarts and general naïvity that young pre-teens would have, they once again end up in a stressful situation that largely could have been avoided.If you are like me, I can’t wait for a slow moment where these characters actually get to rest for a while, even a tiny bit!

“It is a time of darkness. With the end of the Clone Wars, and the destruction of the Jedi Order, the evil Emperor Palpatine rules the galaxy unopposed. When the parents of Milo and Lina Grafare abducted by agents of the evil Empire while the family is out on a mission mapping the unknown systems of Wild Space, the Children must undertake a perilous journey to rescue them. In the third book of this six book chapter book series, Milo and Lina track the mysterious transmission to the planet Lothal, hoping to find help against the Empire. But as Lina and Milo search for the source, they are unaware of the danger following them at every turn.”

The title of this book comes from the fact that the kids end up in a situation where a notorious crime lord on Lothal decides that the droid that accompanies the children, CR-8R, has a head that would look amazing in his collection of older Republic-Era artifacts. It’s up to the children and a new ally that seems to be VERY adept at doing things such as heists, despite the fact that they run a small cafe in town to get things back in order. As you can imagine, things get pretty hairy pretty fast and the kids yet again learn that they should avoid trusting people all the time.

Cavan Scott is a great writer, and does a fine job of building up quite the cast of side characters this time around. Whether it be the crime family, or the pocket of rebel transmissions, everyone is well thought out and realized in a great way no matter how short this book is. Not much new happens here plot-wise aside from wrapping up the story regarding the illicit rebel transmissions, but there are some pretty HUGE main storyline happenings no matter what. Chiefly, we see that Captain Korda is at the end of his rope in regards to his many failures trying to secure the Graf Children. He’s been relegated to boring survey missions, ridiculed, slandered by his superiors, and left with no recourse other than attempting to hire a bounty hunter to do what he was unable to do – capture the children. Things will definitely be heating up VERY soon, and this book ends on a hell of a cliffhanger.

Overall, for a children’s book that can be read VERY quickly, this is well written and engaging. I appreciate these books a lot because, unlike other middle-grade books in this fandom, this is not a worthless side-story that acts as an anemic cash-in while the “main books” are the ones that are actually taken care of. I can’t say the same thing about some other Star Wars books, as a lot in this particular reading level are VERY hit or miss. As previously, this is technically the fourth book in this series if you count the prequel chapters, and you honestly should read it all in order. Otherwise, I can imagine one would have a hard time truly understanding what was happening. If you are looking for a quick one-sitting sort of book as a palate cleanser, something I do occasionally, these are fun and won’t make you think too hard. Otherwise if you are or have a kid that likes Star wars, these are fun!