Super Ninjas!

~posted by Ruth

We had the excitement and pleasure of a visit this summer from the Super Ninja Twins, none other than our own Molly and Jacob.  Lessons from Uncle Cory, Stealthy Ninja Super-Uncle, piqued their new-found interest in becoming ninjas.

As you can see from the photos, they took to it with fascination and devotion.  So in celebration of our memorable summer ninja adventures, here are a couple of new ninja picture books we love.

Ninja Red Riding Hood by Corey Rosen Schwartz

Pity poor Wolf!  He is sick and tired of getting beaten by his prey, so he sneaks into a martial arts school to hone his fighting skills.  Feeling confident when he returns to the hunt, he decides upon Little Red Riding Hood as his next meal.  But guess what!?  She is a graduate of Ninja School and no easy prey.  Luckily for Wolf, a visit from a tai chi master helps put Wolf on a new spiritual path:  “The wolf was a mess./He’d had way too much stress./’I guess I’ll give yoga a try.'”  Terrific illustrations, rhyming text, and fun word bubble dialogue make this a winner.  Love it as a readaloud, too! (And if this whets you appetite for more Little Red Riding Hood, check out our Red Riding Hood Flight. )

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The Boy Who Cried Ninja by Alex Latimer

Reviewers use words like “hip and trendy”; “offbeat”; “quirky”; “goofy, cheerful, and subversive” to describe this picture book.  So you can figure that it’s right up our alley here at Lit for Kids.  Young Tim has many excuses for the  destructive behavior that occurs around him–and it turns out he’s telling the truth!  He gets surprise visits from everywhere in time and space from an astronaut, a giant squid, a pirate, a sunburned crocodile and a time-traveling monkey, but he figures out a way to resolve his difficulties AND get 100 ice creams from his apologetic parents who had doubted him.  Great spin on “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.”  Gotta love that cake-kicking yet stealthy Ninja, too.