Ninja! by Arree Chung

Ninja! by Arree Chung
Henry Holt and Company

Rating: 4 stars

This is a sparsely-worded, richly-illustrated picture book by Arree Chung, and it is a really fun read. It's light, it's cool, it's a story about a stealthy ninja boy named Maxwell and his little sister Cassandra.

This ninja is super brave: he surprises his father awake from a nap on the couch. Few children would dare do that in our house! Luckily this dad wakes up with a pretty good sense of humor.

Maxwell's courage continues into the kitchen, when he swipes milk and cookies from his little sister. Cassandra doesn't see the humor in the swipe-ification, and screams to protest his action. The ninja is sent to his room.

But he makes amends...he invites his sister into his ninja den and offers to teach her the ninja ways. The last page is a picture of them, romping off together. "Sayonara!" she gleefully yells out from her brother's shoulders.

Sweet. Fun. Light. And good sibling stuff, too.

But you know what's almost more fun than the book? Arree Chung's website for coloring pages and back story on the characters and other fun stuff, where you can "ninjafy" yourself if you click HERE. Upload a picture and put a costume on yourself, add a ninja-y quote in a word bubble, and frame it up before you print it. Again: sweet, fun, light, and good parenting stuff, too, if you do all that and put it in your child's lunchbox one random school day.

Hiiiii-ya!