I Was An Eighth Grade Ninja

“I need to confess to you, I’m a little scared.” “You? I don’t understand.” “I left Japan a long time ago… and I’ve never really had anyone in my life for very long except Tomo. So the idea of having a young lady move into the house is more than a little frightening for me.”

Book: I Was An Eighth Grade Ninja by Andrew Simmons and Rob Corley, Zondervan Publishers, 2007

 

Genre: Graphic Novel

Target Audience: Girls 13-16

Subjects: Friendship, loss, battles between right and wrong

Summary: Hana settles in well after the death of her mom and her move from Japan to California to live with her grandfather. At least, she settles in well for a time, until new friends suddenly turn on her and strange beings from another world come and make an attack at her grandfather’s martial-arts studio! Suddenly Hana doesn’t know what to think or feel!

Notes: I am not certain I am the best to review this. I find the graphic novel format harder to follow and the story lacking any depth. But I suspect that’s intentional. The spiritual content of the story is the shown, but not declared, faith of Hana’s grandfather and the pastor of his Church and the pastor’s daughter. The pastor’s daughter starts making friends with Hana till her old friends get jealous and demand she turn on Hana, leaving this girl with a tough choice of whether to continue to show love to the new girl as her father has asked her or whether to continue being friends with the same girls she was. At the end of the book there is a reference to the Sword of the Spirit so I suspect the series will focus somewhat on the armor of God, but at the end of this first one, there’s just that one hint, nothing more.

Recommendation Scale: 4/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Proverbs 13:20 – He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.