The Wookiee Storybook

The Wookiee Storybook

Author: Eleanor Ehrhardt

Illustrator: Patricia Wynne

Medium: Picture book

Publication Date: September 1979

Timeline Placement: 0 BBY

 

It is Chewbacca's 200th birthday and he and Han Solo are headed back to Kashyyyk aboard the Millennium Falcon to celebrate with Chewie's family. There is his father, Attichitcuk (Itchy); his wife, Mallatobuck (Malla); and of course, his lovable little fuzzball of a son, Lumpawarrump (Lumpy), who is one year old. Elderly pervert Itchy tells Lumpy the history of the Wookiees and how they originally traveled to Kashyyyk from another world, lore which was introduced here and remained in effect a quarter century later when it was referenced in Knights of the Old Republic: "The Wookiees have their legends that they were not always here, but it is more than that. The trees themselves are strangers."

Itchy then moves on to more recent history and tells Lumpy some of the heroic exploits of his father. Reptilian slavers (later retconned to be Trandoshans, although that species didn't yet exist when the book was written and the aliens in the illustration don't look quite the same) came to Kashyyyk and took several Wookiees, including Chewbacca, off-world to be sold. Han Solo and Chewie met when Han saved the Wookiee from slavery, an event referenced here for the first time and eventually depicted 21 years later in the Dark Horse comic series Chewbacca.

As Malla prepares a birthday feast for her husband, she laments that she doesn't have any wasaka berries to make wasaka-berry pudding, Chewbacca's favorite dessert. Inspired by Itchy's story, Lumpy decides to be a hero like his father and leaves the safety of his family's treetop home to search for wasaka berries down in the dangerous ground level of Kashyyyk, a place the Wookiees call the "Nother World," which is such a better name than the Shadowlands, as it's called in most subsequent sources.

Lumpy goes looking for berries and soon becomes lost in the Nother World. He is frightened, but he knows that his father would never give up and so neither does he, pressing onward to find the berries. Soon the horrible monsters of the Nother World materialize out of the shadows to investigate him, and Lumpy hides inside a hollow log.

Lumpy's trauma.

Meanwhile, Malla notices that her child is missing and sends a telepathic distress call to Chewbacca. The book makes sure to note that this is a power only adult Wookiees can use. Unfortunately, this is the only time any of them ever use it... except for in Michael P. Kube-McDowell's 1996 Black Fleet Crisis trilogy. When writing those books, Kube-McDowell submitted certain ideas he had for depicting Chewbacca's family and Wookiee society, but Lucasfilm said "No, you have to stick to canon" and they sent him The Wookiee Storybook in the mail. This is possibly the most influential Star Wars book of all time.

Chewie tells Han that Lumpy is in trouble. "Chewie, we must act fast," says Han, which sounds like completely natural Harrison Ford dialogue. Han uses the Falcon's "super-sensitive tracking camera," which is somehow able to show them a crystal-clear image of the Nother World, taken through miles of tree cover, the planetary atmosphere, and probably like thousands of miles of space. That's some camera.

Han sends Chewie ahead in one of their "explorer craft," a small one-person ship that the Falcon apparently has a complement of now. It takes Chewie exactly one minute to reach Kashyyyk, then an additional unspecified amount of time to descend to the Nother World at "planetary speed." Can't have taken as long as that fucking elevator from KotOR, that's for sure.

Wrong elevator.

Lumpy pops out of the log and Chewbacca pulls him into the explorer craft. Chewie is glad to see his son is safe but he's also pissed that Lumpy was so reckless. Lumpy starts to cry and says that he just wanted to be a hero like his dad by finding those damn berries. "Lumpy, you are a hero," says Chewbacca, presumably translated from Shyriiwook but it's still weird to read English dialogue from him. "Even when you were afraid, you kept trying. That is what makes a hero."

Chewie and Lumpy arrive at their family home. Literally hundreds of Wookiees jump out yelling "Surprise! Surprise!" which sounds like the most terrifying thing ever. Chewbacca was so distracted by his one-year-old's imminent death, he forgot all about turning 200! Han, Itchy, and Malla surround Chewie and Lumpy for a group hug and Chewbacca observes that he has everything he needs. "Except for the wasaka berries," says Lumpy.

And everyone laughs.

 

I absolutely love this book. Everything about it is so good, from the charming story to the beautiful and unique illustrations to all the off-the-wall and bafflingly persistent lore. One of the truly classic works of the pre-Empire Strikes Back era of Star Wars. Essential reading, highly recommended.

Lumpy's trauma.