By David Nilsen

I grew up with an older sister who loved Star Wars more than a star destroyer captain loves a crisp uniform, and consequently I was fully immersed in the Star Wars universe from a very young age. By around eight years old I could recite extensive passages of the movies with my sister, and we spent hours pretending to be Luke, Leia, Han, Vader, and others. I’ve been waiting for the right time to introduce my seven-year-old daughter, Yoselin, to these movies. This year on the night before Christmas Eve I popped in the DVD for A New Hope and set her on the path to enlightenment. One month, six movies (yes, we watched the prequels. Sigh.), a dozen or so total viewings, and somewhere around two and a half million questions from my daughter later, I now have a full-fledged Star Wars fanatic on my hands.

When I saw GPL had just received a gorgeous new coffee table art book titled Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy (text by Brandon Alinger, 791.43 Alinger Oversize), I couldn’t wait to take it home and look through it with my Padawan apprentice first-grade daughter. The book contains full page color photos of the original cast in their costumes, as well as concept art, concept costumes that didn’t make it to the movie, and full body creature costumes for characters like Yoda, Chewbacca, and the Ewoks.

Our favorites were naturally the ones for our favorite characters from the original trilogy – Princess Leia and Han Solo – and the creature costumes. Check out some of our favorites below.

Be sure to come to GPL and check out this awesome book. It can currently be found in GPL’s New Books Room. After you’ve looked at it, let us know which part was your favorite!

Also, if you love the Star Wars movies or think you might, the library is hosting a movie marathon in March and showing all three movies of the original trilogy. In addition to the movies, The Library Strikes Back: A Star Wars Event will include Star Wars-themed food and drinks (including pizza!) and prizes. This is an all day event that will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 14. The event should be a lot of fun, so be sure to mark your calendars!