. I am in two minds on this one. The boy next door loves action figures, super heroes etc his mum bought him spiderman and other readers and he devoured them! He loved them. He reads very well for his age, he is at the level Tiana reads at but is more fluent than her. She has better comprehension. So that's the delema....these books don't do anything to develop their comprehension but they certainly do help them learn to read and give them good reading practice. Plus the boys love them!
I think if he is a reluctant reader ( like the boy next door was) then buy them. Any reading is better than none! He will obviously enjoy them. You cannot however really use them as a substitute for other "classics" if you can find a way to use both styles of book then go for it! Perhaps let him read the star wars ones in his reading time and you select a chapter in something else each day? At least you can be sure your money won't be wasted, he will read them.
Now that I think about it although I never bought any leveled readers like that I did buy both my girls their favourite series and I bought Tiana a set of fancy Nancy early readers which she read well before she would have attempted anything that hard from school. So I guess that's almost the same thing
to be completely honest though I would never have bought them barbie books!