We don’t have any Star Wars-related suggestions at Matchstick. I loved Star wars as a kid, and had the figures and the trading cards, and spent hours drawing T.I.E. fighters and X-Wings, but as a movie and a concept and a universe, Star Wars is candy. I loved Star Wars when I was a child, but I loved Cap’n Crunch, too. I won’t let my kids eat that stuff now.
Kids love Star Wars and many adults are nostalgic for it, but the movies and books and games and other merchandise is fun without having anything redeeming about it. If anything, the big lesson of the Star Wars stories is that all problems can be solved with magic and/or fighting. Watch any kids after watching one of the movies and all they want to do is hit each other with sticks. It’s odd to see kids’ backpacks at school, many of which have images of stormtroopers with blaster rifles running and shooting – not the kind of imagery normally allowed or encouraged at schools.
One could argue that Star Wars gets kids interested in Space, but I would argue that it actually perverts interest in Space because kids would much rather watch a version of space that manages to have sound effects in a vacuum, where vehicles can travel from one planet to another in a few minutes.
I don’t hate Star Wars (although episode VII was merely poorly-implemented fan ficton) and I let my kids play with the toys from the 70s that my mom saved in the attic for all these years, but I don’t push it and don’t have any Star Wars-related book or toy recommendations. There are plenty of more meaningful, educational, and dare-I-say ‘wholesome’ stories out there.