{"id":37606,"date":"2024-05-06T17:47:07","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T21:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37606"},"modified":"2024-05-06T21:27:40","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T01:27:40","slug":"__trashed-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37606","title":{"rendered":"Review of Nature’s Ninja, by Rebecca L. Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Nature\u2019s Ninja<\/p>\n

Animals with Spectacular Skills<\/em><\/p>\n

by Rebecca L. Johnson<\/p>\n

Millbrook Press, 2020. 48 pages.
\nReview written May 1, 2020, from a library book
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

This book was made to be booktalked to elementary age kids! I wish we were doing in-person booktalks this year, but I\u2019m going to make a note to myself to be sure to include this book next year.<\/p>\n

The book presents nine ninja skills, with their Japanese names, and then nine animals that demonstrate those skills in amazing ways.<\/p>\n

I also want to say that books about animals with strange characteristics are a booktalking staple, but I hadn\u2019t heard about any of these abilities before, except maybe the sticky feet of the gecko \u2013 but I didn\u2019t know why they are so sticky, or about their microscopic suction cups.<\/p>\n

The most striking skill to me was the same one the author said prompted her to write the book — shuriken-jutsu<\/em>, Ninja throwing stars. It turns out that the collector sea urchin throws small parts of itself at predators. They\u2019re shaped like mini-throwing stars, and they open and close their jaws to bite a would-be attacker.<\/p>\n

Other animal ninjas include the sailfish with its sword-wielding skills, the alkali fly and its ability to stay dry underwater, ground spiders with their abilities to throw web silk to attack, and fish-scale geckos that easily escape by releasing their scales and skin.<\/p>\n

Each chapter features a ninja skill and an animal or animals that demonstrate the skill. Then in \u201cThe Science Behind the Story,\u201d we learn how scientists discovered this animal\u2019s amazing abilities.<\/p>\n

This book is short at only 48 pages, but it packs a lot of surprising science.<\/p>\n

rebeccajohnsonbooks.com<\/a>
\nlernerbooks.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I\u2019m posting the oldest reviews I\u2019ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They\u2019re still good books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nature\u2019s Ninja Animals with Spectacular Skills by Rebecca L. Johnson Millbrook Press, 2020. 48 pages. Review written May 1, 2020, from a library book Starred Review This book was made to be booktalked to elementary age kids! I wish we were doing in-person booktalks this year, but I\u2019m going to make a note to myself […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,33,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-nonfiction-review","category-science","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37606"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43725,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37606\/revisions\/43725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}