The Silent Ninja Friendship is Golden by Aaliyah Blackmon is a children’s book about a young girl who loves karate. Padge is an ordinary kindergartner who loves karate. She wants to advance quickly and practices every chance she gets. This includes on the playground at recess. All goes well until a new fifth grader starts to make fun of her. Padge doesn’t understand why the fifth grader would do that and her only logical conclusion is that she must be really bad at karate.
Each day at school the bullying continues. At first Padge is in denial and gets into a fight with her best friend Julie over it. Padge tries to apologize but Julie won’t accept. The bullying continues yet Padge is determined to fix it herself. Julie witnesses the fifth grader physically bullying Padge and the fight is over between the two friends. Julie makes Padge tell a teacher and the bullying finally stops.
The book ends on a happy note with Padge leveling up in karate and her former bully becoming a friend and fellow student. Julie is there every step of the way and levels up as well.
This book was a great read for children just a bit older than my six year old who has not started first grade. She did however enjoy it when I read it to her. Even my four year old listened attentively, although she would have liked more pictures. The story line was simple and the message clear. My daughter wanted to keep reading and instead of the week it took to read, it only took a couple days. My daughters main complaint was the title she kept looking for the ninja the whole book. I could see her point. The title did promise a ninja that the story never delivered. For me I was disappointed in the art work. Call me old fashioned but I think if you are going to include illustrations then they should look professional.
Overall I have no complaints about the writing. It was a children’s book written by a twelve year old and I don’t know that I wrote that well at her age. The story was age appropriate and entertaining. If you need a good story to help your child with bullies this is the book for you. I’m giving it 4 stars.
R. Tran Books 