USA Sonic the Hedgehog Books Classic

The USA had a decent selection of Sonic the Hedgehog books, although not as many as the UK. These are mostly mini-books with vaguely original stories. They were not adapting the shows at this time. These are not too difficult to collect, with a few exceptions. A lot of these rely heavily on recycling stock art, so if you're expecting a lot of original illustration, most of the time you'll be dissapointed. Also, the USA book selection seems geared for a much younger audience than the UK, which had puzzles and complex games as a focus. These are more along the lines for anyone under 10 perhaps, (a mistake by marketing...in most opinions)

Classic books only for this page.

Sonic Gear Main Page
Sonic Books 2: Modern
Sonic Books 3: Modern

Sonic Books 4

4 small Sonic books. Most of these are by Michael Titlebaum. The activity book has mazes and the expected easy crosswords/ connect the dots, etc. These had a SatAm continuity basis for the stories, and some inside art.

Sonic's Shoes Blues. Alliteration and rhyming all in one, a typical kiddie-style book. You already know the plot. This had a more Archie-Sonic Comic style base to the story. Interestingly enough, this was created in the breif "Pink Princess Sally" period. It is by Golden Books. Every so often, you can find it on Ebay.

Here's an interesting one.
This book has a bit of mystry to it, so you can expect higher prices when you do find it. It's also flimsier then the others with no hard cover or decent spine. (more like a thick pamphlet) This makes it somewhat easier to ruin or bend, so be careful when buying.
As you can see, this is a Sonic X-Treme book, but it was not named for the now-infamous failed game. Likely it's just because "x-treme" was cool. Predictably, Sonic is doing something 'xtreeme' on the cover, which seems to be boarding while wearing a backpack. The art is some shadowed neon, so you can't really "check out Sonic's new look" unless you actually open it up and look inside.

The plot has nothing to do with the X-Treme game that was never released. It's another "Archie Comics" like plot, where Robotnik kidnapps Bunny Rabbot. He then challenges Sonic to "X-Treme" events like climbing and bungie jumping. (very odd). While Sonic & Robotnik are somehow having an x-treme sports contest, Sally & Rotor work out a way to save Bunnie Rabbot themselves, because they think/know that Robotnik will not likely honor his deal if Sonic wins. (Of course, they get her back, and Sonic wins) But is there any interior art? What is the fake new look? This is another Titlebaum, but by TROLL books this time. Plot supplied by: Sonicandtails26

Look and Find Sonic the Hedgehog

If you havn't guessed, this is a "Where's Waldo", but with Sonic. You can find other characters mixed around in it as well. Someone who worked on the Archie Comics did the art. There isn't really any text much, just complex large art. This is a LARGE format hardcover book, keep that in mind when buying. Sonic Gear once owned this, but it was stolen by....the Mail Man!

Sonic Paint N Marker Book

Not sure if this counts as an activity book, it just says it contains 'paper' for activites. Is there any Sonic art inside? Why is this themed? This isn't very common, because it's an item to 'use' rather than to collect.

Here, someone has collected several Sonic book titles. (Ignore the Pokemon one and Sega PC game for now) You can see "How to Draw Sonic & Freinds", Up Against the Wall, Sonic Shoes Blues, Sonic (no subtitle), Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic Friend or Foe. Some of these are on this page already.

"Sonic the Hedgehog Friend or Foe"
This one follows rather cloesly the plot of an episode of SatAm Sonic, almost like a semi-adaptation. It's rather odd, as it's the only one that does that. As you can see on the cover, it features Robotnik's Pinball Trap but with some stock arts supplied on the bumpers. The yellow bit says how you can win something, with details inside.

"Sonic the Hedgehog: The Secret Admirer"

Secret Admirer by John Michlig int. title

"Sonic the Hedgehog: The Secret Admirer" (A Golden Book by John Michlig)
The cover may say "Sonic 2" (around the time when this was published) but it has nothing at all to do with the games. From the front, you can tell the plot right away. Obviously Sally is Sonic's Secret Admirer, & the old strange pinkish with black hair proto-princess who happened before they settled on her style. (Why does Tails look so drunk on the cover? Shouldn't someone have been approving the art?) If you liked the early Archie Comics series of stories, you're likely to like this as well. And if not...well you can still collect it. Secret Admirer & Friend or Foe- all photos by mAtt Pieper

This is a "Play-a-Sound Book"
Illustrated by Rod Vass * Written by Raymond MacKemp *Sounds designed by Kristan Nordine

The story is about Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Sally on a scavenger hunt/race against Robotnik. Robotnik of course has all kinds of tricks up his sleeves. They go through many zones to find clues (Emerald Hill, Marble Zone, Chemical Plant, Mystic Cave, Sandopolis, Death Egg, and finally Metropolis). The prize is an ancient coin called The Cool Blue Baloo worth 6,000,000 Mobiums. at the end Sonic wins and buys 1 million chili dogs, and one for everyone else... and the Mobius Hospital gets to keep the change.

All Play A Sound Photos and Plot facts by SonicEmerald
Sound facts by mAtt Pieper

It is a special book with plastic battery powered edge of buttons. The story inside is sprinkled with pictures instead of words in some of the sentances. When you see a picture show up in the sentance you're reading, you're supposed to push the corrasponding button to enhance the story with noises.

Stock art runs rampant on the buttons and cover because they probably couldn't get anyone to illustrate the thing. A strange and common problem. I bet you want to know what sorts of sounds the buttons make. SonicGear is very thorough: Whooshing run, punching noise, skidding sound, helicoptering, a spring, Robotnik laugh, ?,?,?,?.
To the right, you can see obvious Stock Art Knuckles, floating like an artifact in a sand whirlpool! They didn't change the art at all! Unfortunately "wonky tails" the cross-eyed mistake is spammed in here as well.

A book about The History of the Software Industry. (I'm sure its thrilling...) This is by Martin Campbell-Kelly, and is called "From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog". Since it names him in the title...here it is! I wonder if the book itself mentions Sonic? Has anyone ever bothered to read it? I wonder if the author picked Sonic because he is a fan...or it's just something he thought up?

The description reads as follows...
From its first glimmerings in the 1950s, the software industry has evolved to become the fourth largest industrial sector of the US economy. Starting with a handful of software contractors who produced specialised programs for the few existing machines, the industry grew to include producers of corporate software packages and then makers of mass-market products and recreational software. This book tells the story of each of these types of firm, focusing on the products they developed, the business models they followed and the markets they served. By describing the breadth of this industry, Martin Campbell-Kelly corrects the popular misconception that one firm is at the centre of the software universe. He also tells the story of lucrative software products such as IBM's CICS and SAP's R/3, which, though little known to the general public, lie at the heart of today's information infrastructure. With its wealth of industry data and its thoughtful judgements, this book will become a starting point for all future investigations of this fundamental component of computer history.
Description provided by HoggerTheHedgehog

1994 Reading Encouragement Bookmark Sonic

This isn't a book...but a book mark! So 'books' is the most appropriate place to find it. This is made of cardstock paper and was released by Sega in 1994 to help encourage reading. Given in sheets (they punch out) to teachers to hand out at book fairs. It says "Read It's way past cool" with Sonic in the middle and the copyrights at the bottom. It is shown on an inch-scale. Discovered by Hypersuperchao

"How to Draw Sonic the Hedgehog & the Gang" This is a large(er) format, but thin book. It doesn't have too many pages. It also mixes up actual Sega stock art for Sonic, then adds in SatAm/Archie Sally & finishes off with Adventures of Sonic Weekday wacky Robotnick (seen below) So, it has no consistency with which 'type' of characters it focuses on. The Tails is the poorer USA/UK art of him too, so he's not that cute. As usual, Sally gets much more focus than everyone except Sonic.

The "lesson" is not very good. It is mostly 'how to reverse-engineer stock art' because that's all they use in the book. They don't even choose the art very wisely, except in the case of Sally, who looks just fine in all her shots. No fresh art is found, & it is not a particularly good lesson. This is in the SonicGear collection. Discovered by Piplupfan77

This book is simply called "Sonic the Hedgehog". (Makes it kind of hard to look up / find) and is yet ANOTHER faked-up "origin story" for Sonic, from back when nobody knew much and just made up anything. The book is made by Watermill Press, and written by Judy Nayer with illustrations by Ron Zalme. It is likely to be from the early 1990s, soon after Archie Comics began publishing (as you can see Sally here) As you can see, the book is somewhat 'shaped' with it being diecut to add a bit of interest. It has a format of 1 written page per picture page, and uses lots of re-purposed stock art. (See the cover & interior 'running Sonic' image)
So what's THIS origin all about?
Sonic is a fast hedgehog with normal shoes (miscolored on purpose shoes, that is) Who works at his Uncle Chuck's Chili Dog stand doing deliveries, until someone orders a huge delivery. It's Robotnick (of course) who wanted to distract Sonic in his factory (of mallets, apparently) so he could use the "Ro Bo Machine" on Uncle Chuck & Muttski & then outlaw fun. On the way, Sonic meets Sally the Chipmunk for the first time, and they use a power ring to un-ro-bo everyone at the end. As you can see, there's wrong details & things they were just guessing at from the comics because it's such an early book. All of the pages of the book are in the SonicGear archive. Book scanned by: Justin

Here is the Sonic Sight n' Sound book. You've seen this thing elsewhere, as it was translated into at least a couple of languages and then released in Europe. It was clearly a successful item in it's time. It seems low-tech now, but the re-use-ability of the time must have been very interesting.
The cover says it has "7 Random Light Adventures" and "Comes with Wipe Off Marker". It has thick card pages with glossy surface so you can use it over and over. There are tiny lights inside that, when you press the yellow 'press' button, will do some random flashing pattern to interact with the "game" on that page. This helps control checker-like situations, simple maze type items and other games where you have to help Sonic pass whatever it is. It also makes various noises as you go. There are instructions for each one. Do you want to read all the pages to see what the games do? Now you can! Use this page and click on the pictures to enlarge so you can read the whole thing. Sonic Sight n' Sound Book. Pages & photo by Taaron