Brooke Vitale, whose maiden name was Dworkin, is a children's book author and editor hailing from the United States. For a period of eight years, Vitale held the position of Senior Editor and author at Disney Publishing Worldwide. During her time there, Vitale made contributions to a wide array of Star Wars publications released under the Disney–Lucasfilm Press label.
Following her transition to a freelance career, Vitale has continued to write Star Wars books aimed at young readers. Notably, Vitale is the author of three short stories featured in the 2015 children's anthology 5-Minute Star Wars Stories and subsequent publications with limited distribution. Furthermore, she has been involved in publishing projects connected to the Disney XD show Star Wars Rebels and the Disney+ series The Mandalorian.
Brooke Vitale, born Dworkin, is an American author and editor who focuses on books for children. She is recognized for her contributions to numerous Star Wars books that were published by Disney–Lucasfilm Press.
Vitale became an Editor at Disney Publishing Worldwide in July of 2010, and she was later promoted to Senior Editor after three years. After The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. in 2012, Disney Publishing Worldwide began publishing Star Wars books under the Disney–Lucasfilm Press name. Starting in 2014, Vitale took charge of the development of many Star Wars books for young readers and also authored several of them.
Vitale's initial Star Wars works were part of the Star Wars Rebels: Storybook Library box set, released on December 22, 2014. She penned Art Attack, Entanglement, and Property of Ezra Bridger for this collection. Each book provides a retelling of the short films from the first season of the Star Wars Rebels television show on Disney XD. Vitale also wrote Who Are the Rebels?, which gives background information on each of the main characters from the series.
Vitale adapted TIE Fighter Trouble from the first season episode "Fighter Flight," which was written by Kevin Hopps. Originally, the book was intended to be released separately from the box set on March 31, 2015, but it was ultimately canceled and only made available in the Storybook Library in the United States. In India, TIE Fighter Trouble was still published as a standalone book by Scholastic Inc. in November 2015.
Between July 2015 and December 2015, Vitale had three short stories published in illustrated Star Wars storybooks. These stories included "Escape from Darth Vader," "Rescue from Jabba's Palace," and "The Ewoks Join the Fight." While each story has the same title and reuses artwork from standalone World of Reading books by Michael Siglain, Vitale's writing in each story is completely original.
Vitale's three short stories were widely distributed with the release of 5-Minute Star Wars Stories on December 18, 2015. In addition, the stories were published in storybooks with limited availability between 2015 and 2017, including Star Wars Galactic Adventures and its 2016 reissue, 5-Minute Star Wars Hero Stories and Villain Stories, and Star Wars Galactic Stories: 7 Stories from a Galaxy Far, Far Away..... On January 17, 2022, Vitale's short stories from 5-Minute Star Wars Stories were released as an unabridged audiobook in German with the same title.
As an editor, Vitale was involved in 3 Out-of-This-World Tales!, a collection of three World of Reading books that came with an audio CD. This title was released on August 29, 2017, and it was the last Star Wars project that Vitale worked on as Senior Editor at Disney Publishing.
Vitale left her position at Disney Publishing in January 2018 after her sons were born, and she began working as a freelance editor and writer. Although she is no longer employed by Disney, Vitale has continued to write books for Disney–Lucasfilm Press as a freelancer.
In 2019, Vitale authored Revenge of the Sith, a 96-page illustrated hardcover storybook that adapts the film of the same name. The story is told from the point of view of the protocol droid C-3PO and was intended to be a joint publication between Disney–Lucasfilm Press and Sandvik Publishing as part of Sandvik's Star Wars Epic Adventures monthly subscription series. Although the book was finished and some copies were printed, it was never released because the Epic Adventures series was canceled before the book's scheduled publication.
Two short stories by Vitale were planned to be published in the United States by Disney–Lucasfilm Press in 5-Minute Star Wars Stories, a revised edition of the 2015 book with the same name, but the book was never released. The short stories were eventually published internationally, starting with an Italian release on January 20, 2021. Vitale's short stories, "An Unexpected Ally" and "A Spark of Hope" are adaptations of scenes from the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens and the 2017 film Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, respectively.
On June 30, 2020, Vitale was announced as one of the contributors to The Mandalorian publishing program, which is a collaboration between multiple publishers to release books based on the Disney+ series The Mandalorian. Her first two books for the program, The Mandalorian: Allies & Enemies and The Mandalorian: A Clan of Two, adapt storylines from The Mandalorian Season One and were released on December 1, 2020. On May 4, 2021, the storybook Star Wars: The Mandalorian: Volume 1, which is Vitale's complete adaptation of the series' first season, was released as part of the Disney Die-Cut Classics series from Studio Fun International.
Vitale also wrote The Mandalorian: The Mandalorian's Quest and The Mandalorian: The Path of the Force, which adapt events from The Mandalorian Season Two. These books were published by Disney–Lucasfilm Press on January 11, 2022.
- Official website (backup link)
- Brooke Vitale (@BrookeVitaleBooks) on Facebook (backup link)
- Brooke Dworkin Vitale (@brooke.vitale) on Instagram (backup link)
- Brooke Vitale on LinkedIn (backup link)
- Brooke Vitale ( @vitalebrooke ) on Twitter (backup link)
- Brooke Talks Books on YouTube (backup link)
- Brooke Vitale on Amazon.com (backup link)
- Books by Brooke Vitale on Disney.com (backup link)
- archiveurl=https://archive.vn/YbDiJ on Goodreads' official website (backup link)
- Brooke Vitale on Penguin Random House's official website (backup link)
- Brooke Vitale on Simon & Schuster's official website (backup link)
- Brooke Vitale on reedsy.com (archived from the original on October 3, 2020)