Early Book Review: Nature's Ninja: Animals with Spectacular Skills by Rebecca L. Johnson

Nature's Ninja: Animals with Spectacular Skills by Rebecca L. Johnson is currently scheduled for release on October 1 2019. Did you know that some animals have natural ninja-like talents? This book describes some of these creatures including geckos, sea urchins, bombardier beetles, and more. For example, geckos can grip almost any surface—including walls and ceilings—with their amazing toes. And when collector urchins are attacked, they release tiny, sharp objects that bear a striking resemblance to throwing stars. The book also introduces some of the scientists who are studying these animals' amazing abilities.

Nature's Ninja is a book that is about the crazy cool stealth skills some creatures have. I like that while the book uses ninja skills as a hook to interest more readers, it also offers real information on ninjas as well as the featured animals and continues to relate the two throughout the book. I was worried that the ninja thread would be dropped in lew of the animal facts, but I found the merging of the two topics to be well balanced and informative. The used of narratives about both ninjas and the featured animals can help capture and keep the interest of readers that might otherwise struggle with typical nonfiction books. Although, I have to admit that I enjoyed the straight forward science portions more than the dramatic narratives. I think the balance between the two will help the book hold the attention of a wider range of readers, and maybe inspire some to branch out of their comfort zone and explore more books on the subjects or conduct their own research. I thought the chosen photographs and formatting choices only help this intention, and I found myself going back to look at some of the images again or studying them for a while longer than necessary because of the vivid nature of them. Weird and wacky animals tend to be my favorite to learn about, so I already knew a good deal of the information in the book, but I still learned some new information and was engaged through the read. I really appreciate that there was a glossary, bibliography, suggested resources and links for further research, and an index. Too often I find these things left out of children's non fiction, so I always find myself very pleased to find them included.

Nature's Ninja is a well balanced non fiction narrative for middle grade readers. I think it will appeal to a wide range of readers and will stand up to multiple reads.