AmySea

One of the things on my nephew's list of cool stuff is ninjas. This book was marvelous to him. My sister and I are pretty sure that he is some sort of reincarnated warrior, because if it has to do with pre-modern battle, he's totally on board with that. At numerous points in this story I heard him emit an enlightened "ahhh," that was equivalent to, "battle strategy noted and filed away for future use." He truly appreciated the resourcefulness and cunning of these ninjas warriors. I am pretty sure that, despite what this title proclaims, my nephew would want to be a ninja. There was nothing in this book that did not appeal to him.

My niece also loved this book, particularly the sections that discussed ninja weaponry and ninja stealth strategies. Our biggest complaint about the books in this You Wouldn't Want to ... series is that it does tend to give weak treatment to women in history. This book made a point, though, of stressing that women were ninjas, too, and it even showed girls undergoing ninja training. My niece felt included and empowered by this information. In my youth I was a martial artist, and I strongly advocate martial arts training for girls. So this aspect of this book appealed to me, too, as did all the warrior stuff that kept my nephew so engaged. Girls with throwing stars... Cool!