Luke Flowers

This is a new addition to the Acorn line of easy readers/beginning chapter books. Moby Shinobi was originally an easy reader series, published a few years ago, and has been adapted to Acorn with new books.

The story begins with Moby, a white boy with brown hair, and his dog Toby in the Shinobi Dojo. They decide to go to the beach, pack up their ninja tools and beach towels, and take off. Once at the beach, lots of people need help and even though he fails at first, Moby keeps on trying and eventually his ninja skills work out.

The art is bright and colorful, and always makes me think it's a tie-in to a cartoon. The only diversity is one brown-skinned friend and a few background people. The text is rhyming couplets, "Argh! The fish cannot be caught! Our lines are tangled in a knot!/I did my ninja best you see. Why do my plans not work for me?"

Verdict: These leave me cold and I doubt they will be as popular as Unicorn and Yeti or Crabby, but kids who like cutesy ninja books and those who enjoyed the Moby Shinobi easy readers will be happy to have these to supplement their reading.

ISBN: 9781338547528; Published December 2019 by Scholastic; Purchased for the library… (altro)