Saturday, April 16, 2016

#Review: Nighttime Ninja by Barbara DaCosta / Illustrated by Ed Young #atozchallenge




Summary:
Late at night, when all is quiet and everyone is asleep, a ninja creeps silently through the house in search of treasure. Soon he reaches his ultimate goal...and gets a big surprise! Will the nighttime ninja complete his mission?

My review:
The title of this book caught my attention which is why I purchased it without really looking through it. I usually at least do a quick flip. If I had done so, I would have known this is essentially a picture book with very few words. The book is targeted for kids 4-7 but in truth, I think it is more 2-5 and only that high in age because an emerging reader could handle it.

The book starts out really cute, as the reader has to turn the book sideways to the first two pages, to see black and gray ninjas coming down the page. One appears largely on the second page.
The book then has a myriad of  pages with this ninja making different moves and being very stealth.

He finally gets to his goal which is in the kitchen but gets stopped at the most unlikely character. I will not reveal what he is after or who stops him because well, it would ruin the entire story.

I have to say, I was really not impressed with this book. I thought there could have been so much more writing done to make it even cuter. Also, the artwork was done with paper cuttings which are fine but when the artist put the pages together, I could see the white lines of the pages and could tell it was not put together well. That was unfortunate. I think it would have been better with another form of artwork

I will give this book 3 stars but only because the premise is cute and young kids might like it. The author had a good idea but, it just went sour. It is not one I personally would reread. 

Disclosure: I purchased this book for my own collections. The views here are 100% my own and may differ from yours. ~Naila Moon

Where to find the author:
Goodreads
Amazon

1 comment:

Liz A. said...

Oh, too bad. My nephews might enjoy this (they're about the right age).

Liz A. from
Laws of Gravity