By Sanae Ishida
A tiny ninja girl at a secret ninja school who can't get her moves right, and practices and practices until she can.
Little Kunoichi is a small ninja in training at a secret ninja school, and she is not very good yet. Her jumps are wobbly, her moves fall apart, and it's frustrating. So she practices, and practices, and practices some more. Along the way she teams up with a little samurai boy who is working just as hard at his own training, and together they keep at it until, at the island's big festival, they finally pull off the routine they've been drilling for so long. Sanae Ishida's illustrations are the draw here: soft, detailed, full of Japanese setting and small delights, the kind of pictures a child wants to sit inside. A few Japanese words are woven through, with a note at the back.
If your child loves ninjas but you'd rather not hand them one more loud, kicking, cartoon-battle book, this is the answer. It's a ninja story where the whole plot is effort: she wants to be good, she isn't yet, so she works at it. That is a real and useful thing for a small child to watch a character do. And it's simply lovely to look at, so it holds a child who might not sit still for a busier book. It sits happily next to the sillier ninja picks on this shelf and gives the obsession a calmer, prettier shape.