Original Canon storyline? A whole lot of possibilities there. An idea I have is centering on Kairi and Lea traveling to a Disney world during their training

I wonder, on a scale of 1-10, how mad Nomura was when he found out about this, if he has. Not even Kanemaki claims that her official novel adaptations are fully canon.

We reached out for a comment on the novels from both Scholastic and Square Enix just to see what the deal was but we never got a response from either so...I'm publishing this. Scholastic edited the summaries to just say "Coming soon! Keep an eye on this spot for more details!" after we did email them, so...?

I just want to know where Nomura stands on this haha

Ah scholastic, that name takes me back, it was where I got my first KH 2 manga book back when my elementary school hosted a bookfair. Such memories.

A Scholastic Book Fair is where I got my first Kingdom Hearts manga back in the 6th grade, so I'm over the moon with this. I honestly don't even care what they cover, I'm just excited to read it. I'm more interested in if it'll be illustrated and by who!!

Also, I wonder who won the 1v1 fist-fight with Nomura to win the right to assert that the story's gonna be canon? Cause that's kind of a big deal!!

Well this is a welcoming surprise. Maybe this is canon solely because it's a retelling of pre-existing lore as opposed to the lore being recontextualised.

This is... Interesting to be sure. I used to love reading Schoolastic books back in middle School, so I'm honestly kinda curious about the concept. Though the idea of a cannon story being in one of those is just halarious and random. It's probably like Alpha said in that it's just a retelling of established events, rather than anything new. If not, then one has to wonder what kind of story they're even planning to tell.

It's totally going to be about a young kid named [insert name] who lives in a normal rustic city by the [insert distinctive feature about a location] has a strange dream about a world beyond their own. One day strange things start happening [insert name]'s town and a mysterious person appears in town with a strange weapon—the Keyblade. [insert older teen/young adult's name] takes [insert name] on as an apprentice as they navigate the mystery plaguing the town and are thrust into a journey neither of them ever expected.

I felt a wave of dread the second I read "canon."

It's probably going to be a 200 page story about what Sora was meant to have for dinner :p

Seriously though, I would like to see something on Eraqus and Xehanort as apprentices. Although It could also be on Mickey's journey during KH1 before he meets Aqua. Or it could be something involving KHUX. We'll just have to see.

I would also get the paperback. Prefer physical books myself.

I don't get this at all. Is this going to be the first KH book that won't be a retelling of something that already happened AND not influenced/controlled by Nomura (and something that will officially exist in the KH universe)? Also, is it a book meant for children?

I hope this book covers the extensive topic of Sora's stinky feet and how often Riku tries to sniff them while he's asleep.

Otherwise it'll probably just be some inoffensive fluff content where we get more and better character interactions. Ascended fan fiction basically. Not too interested but we'll see.

I bet Nomura's mad

"a huge part of Kingdom Hearts lore that they have been clamoring for."

So, there are multiple different ways that we can interpret this:

Depending on how far along we are in the Union X story at this point (although with the bugs in Daybreak Town I feel we are rapidly approaching the endgame), we could be getting something about the worlds immediately post-Keyblade War.

Or as was suggested above we could get some more backstory on the apprentice days of Eraqus, Xehanort, and Yen Sid.

Or, and this is my personal favorite, we could get a series that properly depicts the fall of Radiant Garden.

As for whether SE and Nomura are involved - they very well could be, we just don't have enough information to know that yet.

Yeah nah there's no way this is actually canon

$5 says it actively contradicts established lore

So, let's all stop to consider something here:
Apparently, judging by the quote, this is not intended to just be a single book, but a new SERIES following an original canon story in the KH universe.
So, considering that apparently the first book alone is slated to be around 200 pages, we can then assume that this series, however long it is intended to last for, will be a fairly sizable narrative.
Secondly, it says that it would deal with a section of the lore that fans have been "clamoring" for, which means it's unlikely that this is supposed to be just some completely unconnected side story set somewhere far off in the distant reaches of the KH galaxy. No, this will have implications, if it is indeed canon, to the main story.
So, taking that last part and the length of this story into account, we could be in for some pretty juicy stuff here!

ten year gap ten year gap ten year gap ten year gap ten year gap ten year gap ten year gap ten year gap ten year gap ten year gap ten year gap ten year gap ten year gap teN YEAR G

I can't be surprised if this is Canon, there's been obscure ways of having to get Kingdom Hearts Information in the past like Interviews, Phone Games and Special Scenes at Concerts.

I'm interested about this Novel though.

It claims the book will tell a huge part we've been clamoring for, but given how we are that's actually pretty darn vague.

It could be anything from Xehanort and Eraqus' past to Sora's new haircut.

There is Donald and Goofy's ice cream incident mentioned in KH2. That definitly deserves a novel

Since the summary mentioned Square characters along with Disney and new ones I'd be nice to see some actual FF cameos again. Even in written form

My guesses:
[SPOILER]
[LIST]
[*]Yen Sid redesigns the Mysterious Tower according to the Guidelines of the Homeowner's Association.
[*]The Curious Case of the Ghost Train, and the link to high traces of hallucinogenic chemicals found in Ice Cream.
[*]For Daisy, a Love Story.
[*]Scrooge McDuck's Top 10 Tips for creating an Interworld Business.
[*]The Hazing of Ventus, Gone Wrong!
[*]Aqua creates an Etsy.
[*]The Space Between Us, the story about the third seat between Eraqus and Xehanort.
[*]The Legend, Told Again by Kairi's Grandma
[*]TWO?! The case of the second Kairi.
[*]Riku vs the Seeker of Darkness' Agenda
[*]Feel the Heat, a cook book.
[*]Finny Fun, read along
[*]More gay subtext
[*]Where's Olaf?
[*]Gotta Dream 'Em All
[*]13 Shades of Darkness
[*]A Series of Retconned Events
[/LIST]
[/SPOILER]

I can see them doing short stories about the phantoms of the Final World.

You people are making me feel old with all this "I got a KH manga at the book fair!" talk. Back in my day it was Animorphs, Sonic books that adapted the plots of Sonic comics/cartoons, & Garfield's Pet Force, where Garfield and friends become space-traveling superheroes in an alternate dimension.

I read way too much of that last one for my own good.

Judging from the list of works of the writer, it's probably going to be something like this:

Canon? Scholastic? I'll bet anything it's canon in the same way V-Cast was. GG Disney, hope Nomura’s pissed off enough to keep them at bay from future KH titles

I wish Disney and Square Enix would get to work on translating and releasing Ultimanias and other books / documents that detail lore and interviews not covered in the game.

[SPOILER]Let's be real though, I'm most likely going to buy this "Kingdom Hearts: The Story of Friendship" novel series, if only to be up to date before they launch a CG Disney Junior show that features a princess of the week[/SPOILER]

Look at Wattpad for example. It’s one of the most popular reading/writing apps out there with over 65 million users and many of them are pre-teens and teens.

They are definitely reading. Why would anybody think they aren't?

It's kinda sad that I feel that no matter what is written there, it can only be better than the current canon writing because it's probably not as effed up needlessly complicated as the actual story. I'm in for everything. Maybe it's even something one can understand :O

A character guide? Interesting. Perhaps we could have an updated, expanded version of the KH2FM+ cast portrait, this time including Pete, Maleficent, Yen Sid, TAV, Xion, Eraqus, YMX, Vanitas, Terra-Xehanort, Master Xehanort, the Foretellers, Chirithy, Ephemer, MOM, Luxu, Meow Wow, and Chernabog?

Okay maybe not the last one.

Not expecting much from the character guide besides the most basic info. If we're lucky, maybe it'll have those renders SE haven't released yet.

Surprised to see Scholastic and Square Enix (of course Disney takes credit) collaboration with each other given that for the majority of the KH manga, books etc. in North America it's by Yen Press.

Am I the only one hoping for something Kairi related? Call me hopelessly optimistic and a clown... but no one in the world is satisfied with how this girl was handled. And after KHIII people are even more vocal about it, in making rant videos (and rant posts. But Square's more likely to see the videos, as they've said they watch KH YouTubers' content... not that we yet know if Square Enix is affiliated or not), but maybe THIS is what they mean about something everyone's clamoring for: finally a good Kairi story.

Like, give me Kairi at least TRYING to help find Sora at the end of KHIII, even if she doesn't succeed and Riku has to go do it by himself in KHIV (ugh).

Like many of you, I'm sadly starting to doubt Kairi will ever be playable or treated right in the games. But maybe they'd at least be willing to donate a novel story to her. And the original trailer for BbSV2 made it look like there was Kairi stuff left out of the series that Nomura wanted to touch on: speaking of, Kairi escapes Axel offscreen in KHII. Axel: "I kidnapped Kairi, but she got away from me. After that, Saïx caught her. He's a member of Organization XIII. Saïx! Now go save her!" Maybe if not something KHIII or post-KHIII, it could be her full adventure in KHII: showing things like this, and whatever she, Hayner, Pence, and Olette were doing at the mansion (presumably during KHII), in the BbSFM secret ending... if that WASN'T just reworked into being the Sora, Hayner, Pence, and Olette scene in front of the mansion in KHIII.

And just... the fact that for the other schoolastic book, they mentioned Kairi as one of the main heroes and not Naminé or any of the Sea Salt or Wayfinder Trio (even though it might just be because Kairi's arguably the heroine in the most games, and part of the Destiny Trio... and maybe they're moreso appealing to the KHI-KHII-and KHIII crowd) gives me (probably false) hope.

Edit: It could also be the fall of Radiant Garden--like people were saying above--that could easily be a piece of lore we've all been clamoring for. And during it, it could show how Kairi got to Destiny Islands (and perhaps her first meetings with Sora and Riku). And even before that, Xehanort experimenting on her: if that part of the novels is canon. Maybe she even saw Skuld--if the experimentation part is true--when they were down in the basement together.

Seeing what Kairi was up to in Sora's heart and remembers from it (if anything), could also be interesting. Honestly, there's SO much Kairi stuff that could be done. And it's so sad that no one's done anything with it yet.

I'd buy them, even if they're about a worldline in which DiZ was actually feeling good one day and created a data beach so Roxas and the Data Twilight Town trio could actually go on that trip.

Or a story about Lea and Isa having adventures in Radiant Garden doing Zack and Cody-style hijinks, and Dilan is constantly yelling at them to not run in the hallways.

Or hell, give me an Isekai about Nomura's cat being thrown into Kingdom Hearts and it being a Keyblade wielder somehow. Kingdom Hearts is already an isekai within an isekai, so no point in holding back now.