Why no Trek books for kids?!!!!

[Steve Roby]

While I can understand that ST might not have quite the same amount of interest for kids as stuff like SW, I still reckon they could have at least put out an annual or a young adult adaptation.

Americans don't do British-style annuals. There's never really been a Star Trek equivalent to, for example, the current or past Doctor Who Annuals and Storybooks, just the old UK Trek annuals Ian mentioned, which were largely reprinted from American comics.

The absence of a YA novelization is a little more surprising, though, given that many of the past Trek movies had them, even when Pocket wasn't generally publishing YA Trek.

 

[Thrawn]

While I can understand that ST might not have quite the same amount of interest for kids as stuff like SW, I still reckon they could have at least put out an annual or a young adult adaptation.

Americans don't do British-style annuals. There's never really been a Star Trek equivalent to, for example, the current or past Doctor Who Annuals and Storybooks, just the old UK Trek annuals Ian mentioned, which were largely reprinted from American comics.

The absence of a YA novelization is a little more surprising, though, given that many of the past Trek movies had them, even when Pocket wasn't generally publishing YA Trek.

Well, another thing you have to realize is that within a franchise they tend to base what they do on what sold well the last time, and Nemesis sold all of its tie-in material at a rate of absolute balls. So, no one would expect the next Trek movie to suddenly justify a much bigger marketing push.

I have a feeling that the NEXT JJ Trek film will have YA adaptations and making of books and art books, etc, etc, etc.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I have a feeling that the NEXT JJ Trek film will have YA adaptations and making of books and art books, etc, etc, etc.

And it's not necessarily too late to go back and do the first film as a YA either. IDW has only just given us a ST II comic adaption.

When ST III came out, Buena Vista brought out book/record sets for TMP, ST II and ST III, among several other media tie-in book/records. There was also a boxed set with all three titles. When ST IV came out, they added a ST IV book/record to the ongoing series.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

When I was the target age for the YA books, I read both them AND adult Trek novels. I think to me, it was nice to have both stories involving older people (the characters I knew) AND stories that were a little closer to being personally relatable, agewise, because with those I could actually imagine what my place might be in that sort of universe.

MAN, the idea of growing up on DS9...for some reason that really appealed to me despite all the hardships involved. (Prisoners of Peace has always stayed in my mind.)

 

[Trek Survivor]

Who said there won't be a (UK) Trek 2010 annual? I thought the 2010 annuals didn't make it out until September time (in preparation for Christmas)?

And Titan's new Trek comic is a good attempt to target a younger audience.

I agree there could've been more. As I recall, the last Trek annual was TNG's 1992 one, allied with Marvel UK's ace TNG comic back in the day...

 

[borgboy]

I was reading the adult ST books, and other adult level books as a kid. I don't think ST needs a seperate line for kids.

 

[Rush Limborg]

Hmm...Y'know, I kinda liked the Starfleet Academy Books--the ones I was able to find, anyway.

It would've been nice to see some DS9 Academy-Books, in addition to the Jake/Nog tales. I wouldn't mind seeing Bashir, Sisko, Jadzia, and Ezri in their Academy days....

 

[JD]

Yeah, I agree with you there Rush. I did like the Jake & Nog stories, but I also would have enjoyed some Academy books.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I enjoyed the Jake and Nog stories as well.

You know, one thing I always found funny--the fact that when you look at them, two of my favorite DS9-related works ever, both in the YA and regular novel line, have almost the same plot! Betrayal (DS9 #6) by Lois Tilton, and Prisoners of Peace by John Peel (YA #...3?) are quite similar!

In fact, in my own imagination I like to pretend that a very young Jake wrote Prisoners of Peace as a sort of imaginary do-over on the events of Betrayal and the bad decisions he made.

 

[Sxottlan]

Not trying to be difficult here or anything, but I've always felt that the early Stargazer novels were written in a way geared towards pre-teens.

 

[RTMS]

The Star Fleet Academy books, while ok reading were a little too tweenish for me. I think the reason SW has had a better run is because they dealt with full blown teenagers, 15-18 etc and much more darker or real problems than the SFA did. I like to point to STTNG The Best and the Brightest, as an example of the kind of teen series I would be most interested in.In some ways this book always remined me of the John Jakes Novel North and South, at least the first quarter of it. They go from 16 to 20 and right into a war when they graduate.The SFA books were just to sterilized for my tastes. Not that I want graphic sex or violence to occur, but the fluffiness simply turned me off of the rest of the series.

 

[JarodRussell]

I had this kid version of the "Generations" novelization once. Basically a much shorter re-telling of the script, cutting some subplots, with much easier sentences.

 

[Steve Roby]

I had this kid version of the "Generations" novelization once. Basically a much shorter re-telling of the script, cutting some subplots, with much easier sentences.

There were YA versions of The Voyage Home, Generations, First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis. There were also kids' books versions of The Search for Spock and First Contact (yes, three of them).

Come to think of it, though they were aimed at school libraries and hard to come by otherwise (I only have one of them, the novelization of Emissary), there was a series of Pocket TNG and DS9 novels rewritten for younger readers. Globe Fearon published five TNG and five DS9 novels as rewritten by Yvonne Suter. As I understand it, Globe Fearon was owned by Pocket's parent company, Simon & Schuster.