today’s children storybook summary is
Samurai Scarecrow, A Very Ninja Halloween
By Rubin Pingk
The takeaway: If you don’t treat someone with kindness, you may get “tricked” by them (or don’t be mean to your baby sister!) – A perfect example of the Halloween trick or treat, applied to human behavior –
Storyline
Yukio and his younger sister, Kashi, are getting ready for Halloween. They are coming home, carrying big pumpkin on their arms, passing through the pumpkin patch where a big scarecrow guards the field. As they rush home, they remember an old scarecrow song and Kashi gets frightened.
Yukio is a Ninja and Kashi wants to be a Ninja too. Yukio will be a bird for Halloween and Kashi wants to be a bird too. Everywhere that Yukio goes, Kashi follows. She doesn’t want to give her bigger brother any breaks. And when Kashi, dressed in a similar Halloween costume as her brother, shows up in front of Yukio’s Ninja friends, they all laugh, and her brother gets angry. Harsh words were spoken, and feelings were hurt, and for the first time, Kashi didn’t want to follow her brother. She was left home, while Yukio and his friends went trick-or-treat.
It was well into the Halloween night when the group of Ninjas were coming back home, with their buckets full of treats. It was dark and spooky, and they all heard a noise. Soon, the noise became a shadow. When they raised their eyes, they saw a towering Samurai scarecrow, the very one Kashi and Yukio have seen earlier in the field.
The Ninjas run away fast, but the scarecrow came right after them, singing the frightening rhymes:
“Show me the birds no longer afraid,
The feathered fools who won’t flee.
Find me the birds who think I’m decayed,
I’ll teach them to be scared of me.”
When the Samurai scarecrow caught up with Yukio, the boy was bagging for his life, offering the scarecrow all the candy he had gotten, except for one small bucket. “This one’s for Kashi,” cried Yukio. He was guarding that bucket while the monster was getting closer and closer. Yukio fell on the ground, and the scarecrow touched his nose. Then the scarecrow pulled off its head and through the opening up came Kashi. Happy that she had tricked her bigger brother, she took off laughing, while Yukio followed her closely, asking a lot of questions.
Characters
Kashi, a very curious girl; Yukio, a Ninja boy bored with his sister’s constant chattering; other boys; the scarecrow,
Illustration
Using just few basic colors: black, white, orange, red and purple, the illustrator of this book creates a very compelling Halloween environment. The drawings are big and bold, the lines are firm, the colors, applied abundantly. The images, digitally rendered, are creative and appealing to young and excited minds.
Theme: loyalty, change of heart.
Recommended Age 4 to 7
Reading Time: 6”
Things to Learn
A Ninja is a person that has been train in the ancient Japanese art of fighting. Ninjas are usually believed to be highly skilled warriors but often time their skills have been used for less noble purposes.
Since you read until the end, please take a second and rate this book. Thank you.
(p.s. you can also subscribe to new posts in the upper right corner 🙂