‘Jack B. Ninja’ by Tim McCanna, illustrated by Stephen Savage, is a rhyming story about Jack, a young ninja who hides, scales the highest walls, swims underwater, enters dark caves, discovers hidden treasure, and finds himself not alone. Just when he thinks his mission has come to an end, he is saved by three friendly ninjas who help him find the ninja master, to whom he must bring the treasure.

As it turns out, the other ninjas are closer to Jack than one might think, and they are all working together toward one common goal – celebrating Jack’s birthday.

While the story is cute and brings about a sense of fantasy as young kids sometimes dream of being stealthy ninjas who can get away with anything, this story seemed as though it was missing the reveal of the ninjas as his family from a physical standpoint. It would have been nice to see them take off their masks, yet one can see how the point of the story is to show that ninjas are unpredictable and often disappear without any notice. However, the last illustration shows that they obviously spent time together, as Jack’s birthday cake has been mostly eaten. Lovers of rhyming children’s stories that play on the imagination will want to pick up this book.

You can find ‘Jack B. Ninja’ by Tim McCanna here.

*Review originally posted at YABooksCentral.com*