Night of the Ninjas

Mary Pope Osborne's Night of the Ninjas is a short time-travel adventure for 7 year olds about a brother and sister who have to learn to move like shadows.

What happens

Jack and Annie have been checking the woods every evening for weeks. The magic tree house has gone, and so has Morgan le Fay.

Then it comes back. There is a mouse sitting on the glowing letter M, and a note from Morgan saying she is in trouble.

Only one book in the tree house is lying open. The picture shows two figures on a misty mountainside, dressed in black, with long swords strapped to their backs. Annie wishes them there before Jack can finish reading about the place (he is not pleased about that).

This one sits just after their first four trips, and it opens a run of books where the two of them hunt for four special things to free Morgan. Your reader can start here without having read the earlier ones.

Old Japan turns out to be cold, dark and quite frightening. Two ninjas climb the tree using iron claws on their hands. A ninja master in a candlelit cave agrees to help, then leaves the children to find their own way back in the dark, with samurai warriors climbing the mountain behind them.

He gives them three things to remember. Use nature. Be nature. Follow nature. Watching Jack try to work out what on earth that means is the best bit of the whole book.

There is a lovely moment where they crouch behind a rock and Annie whispers "Be a rock". Jack thinks it is nuts. Then he tries it, and he feels as strong and as safe as the rock, and he wants to stay a rock forever.

Jack is the worrier. He wants to read the research book first, check the direction twice and go home. Annie just goes. If you have two children in your house who argue exactly like that, it is very recognisable.

The samurai are properly scary for a page or two. They carry two swords each, and the master warns that they will ask no questions and show no mercy. The scare passes quickly, but a very sensitive 7 year old might want you in the room for that chapter.

Chapters are tiny and the sentences are short, which makes it a good pick for a reader who wants a real adventure but is not ready for long paragraphs yet.

What to read next

If they finish this one wanting to know what the second special thing is, Afternoon on the Amazon picks up straight afterwards, with the same mouse and a much hotter, buggier place to get lost in.