By Anh Do
A clumsy, nerdy boy wakes up on his tenth birthday to find out he's the very last ninja on Earth, and has no idea how to be one yet.
Nelson is a bit of a nerd, glasses, allergies, no coordination to speak of. Then he wakes up on his tenth birthday and his eccentric grandma drops the news: he's the last ninja in the world, and it's on him to save the day. The trouble is he's terrible at it. With his gadget-inventing cousin Kenny and a grandma who builds flying suits in the shed, Nelson stumbles through his first outings as a hero, crashing, flailing, and slowly figuring it out. The pages are packed with cartoons, the type is big and friendly, and the jokes come fast, which is the point.
This is a lovely bridge for a child who wants ninjas but isn't ready for a wall of text, because it's a real chapter book that reads as fast as a comic. Nelson being hopeless at first is the whole appeal: he's not a natural, he's an ordinary boy who has to learn, and he keeps face-planting on the way. The laughs pull a reluctant reader straight through, and there's a long series waiting if this one clicks, which buys you a good stretch of easy wins.