Stranger Things Is Releasing A Junior Novelization For Season 1, And I Have So Many Questions Ahead Of The Final Season

The long wait for Stranger Things Season 5 continues, and I can't fault any fans for being frustrated that Netflix only just made good on the promise of a 2025 release by debuting the series finale on December 31 in the 2025 TV schedule. That doesn’t mean there’s not still fun to had in the meantime, though, with options like rewatching from the start with a Netflix subscription. An upcoming option? A novelization of Season 1 aimed at kids, and I have so many questions about it.

Stranger Things, Season 1: The Junior Novelization is due to release on Tuesday, July 8 by Random House Books for Young Readers. The page count is listed at 320 pages, which raised my eyebrows as a book for children, especially since the age range is listed at 7-10 years old, per Random House.

Author Matthew J. Gilbert is no stranger to bringing the franchise to a younger audience, as he also wrote Hawkins Horrors (age range 8-12), Will Byers: Secret Files (young adult), How to Survive in a Stranger Things World (age range 12 and up), and the upcoming Stranger Things, Season Two: The Junior Novelization (age range 7-10).

Despite the length of over 300 pages, other elements of the book seem like standard fare for a junior novelization, like the eight pages of images from the show, and I’m guessing the font size will be bigger than you’ll find in any adult book. But my questions immediately after seeing the news weren't about font size or photo choices.

I immediately wondered: how much is a junior novelization for the 7-10 age range going to leave out from the first season of a show that Netflix lists at TV-14 with “disturbing images, fear, gore, language, smoking”? How much of Eleven’s twisted backstory with Dr. Brenner will make the cut? Can key points of Nancy’s story with Steve and Jonathan even be adapted for kids without losing their impact?

How much of Hopper’s attempts at coping (not to mention his eventual Lando Calrissian-esque betrayal) will be written in, or the gruesomeness of saving Will in the Upside Down? I’m still haunted by that shot of Will attached to the Upside Down with a disgusting tendril down his throat, and I was definitely older than 14 when I first watched the show. Even Eleven’s sacrifice at the end is pretty heavy. Would it be worth reading by adults for Easter eggs about Season 5?

That last question might by a stretch, but the description does shed some light on the book’s approach to a pretty dark span of eight episodes. It says this about Will’s disappearance:

That reads to me like this book won’t really put much focus on the grimmer adult and teen stories from Season 1, and instead focus on the more innocent kids’ story… although presumably with some of the swearing cut and probably leaving out that time Eleven killed a bunch of soldiers by crushing their brains with just her mind.

None of this is to suggest that it’s a bad thing that kids might get some mature themes out of the junior novelization, and I would have been all over a book like this (no matter the length) when I was in the target age group. I just wonder how much it will compare to the show. With Matthew J. Gilbert’s junior novelization for Season 2 listed on Amazon with a release date of September 9, 2025, I also wonder if the goal is to release kids’ versions of all four seasons before Season 5 premieres.

That might be cutting it close, given that the release schedule places Season 2’s version almost exactly two months after the Season 1 version, and Netflix releases the first episodes of Season 5 not even three full months after Gilbert’s take on the second season. Honestly, I would love to see a kids version of Season 4’s ending. Good luck adapting that for 7-year-olds!

If you want to check out the junior novelization for Season 1 (or get it for a youngster), it’ll be available starting on July 8. You can of course also just rewatch the series on Netflix.