Samurai vs Ninja 1: The Battle for the Golden Egg – Nick Falk & Tony Flowers

ISBN: 9780857986054

Published: 01/04/2015

Imprint: Random House Australia Children’s

Extent: 96 pages

Samurai vs Ninja 2: The Race for the Shogun’s Treasure

ISBN: 9780857986368

Published: 01/04/2015

Imprint: Random House Australia Children’s

Extent: 96 pages

RRP: $9.99

From the dynamic duo that brought us the Billy is a Dragon and Saurus Street series – much loved by your younger readers no doubt! – comes this hilarious new offering with some extremely loopy characters.

Full of antics and situations which will have huge appeal to those children setting out on their beginning chapter books journey; these stories relate the ongoing skirmishes between the rival ninjas and samurais with laugh-out-loud humour. Readers will relish moments such as ‘It’s raining ninja poo!’ and ‘..so she’d snuck into his room and put wasabi in his undies’.

In volume #1, the crazy warriors are both angling for Japan’s greatest treasure – the fabled Golden Egg. Cheating and revenge tactics abound as neither team play fair.

The #2 episode sees the manic factions facing off again when the Great Bear is stolen from Edo Castle and the shogun promises a great honour to whoever can find his prized possession.

While written in a fashion that will draw in those newly independent readers there is a great opportunity to expand vocabulary including some Japanese language – ably explained in a glossary at the end of each book.

Flowers’ cartoon illustrations are a terrific adjunct to readers  with their speech bubbles adding punch to each punch line delivered.

These are exactly the sorts of stories that could be the basis of some creative writing as students come up with their own wacky adventures for the Japanese crazies.

Highly recommended for younger readers aged around 6 and up.