Masked Ninja

A Noble Effort, But Poor Execution

I was curious about how people are handling the current virus when it comes to informing their children, so I rented this book in hopes of discovering one way. Let's just say I hope this isn't the method used by most, because it honestly isn't very high quality. The art is a bit plain, in my opinion, and the Kindle version doesn't allow double tapping to zoom text so it's incredibly difficult to read, but those are actually less problematic than the actual content (and I mean that in the traditional sense, not the social justice sense).

To start, there's an extremely unhelpful explanation of what?? masks are: “Masks are surgical masks that doctors wear.” Wow. Masks are masks? You don't say! This isn't even accurate, because people who aren't healthcare professionals or immunocompromised individuals aren't supposed to be wasting surgical/medical supplies in the first place. Then it shows a ninja whose mouth is already covered by their ninja hood asking why another is wearing a (surgical) mask and being told it's for protection. Okay, but... the ninjas' masks already sufficiently cover their faces. Are they trying to die of suffocation? This surely will confuse kids because the faces are already covered - and it continues throughout the entire story, where every ninja without a mask still has their hood covering their face... yet somehow can still get virus particles and spread them, make a mess when sneezing, and have a thermometer in their mouth. I'm sorry, what?! Is that supposed to be their face randomly the same colour as their ninja outfit?? Very odd and confusing.??

Beyond that, the book uses words not suitable for the age of children the art seems aimed at - pandemic, CDC, WHO, literal Chinese writing which the English-speaking audience will likely not understand (and which have no pronunciation guide, so it isn't an educational moment), etc. and gets too political by telling kids to only trust their doctor, the CDC, and the WHO instead of the internet or television. It doesn't even mention trusting one's parents, which just seems like a way to make parenting in the pandemic a little more difficult.??

Then at the end it randomly tacks on something about never blaming others for the virus. It's clearly meant to be against the bullying of Asian kids, particularly Chinese ones, but it's too brief and lacks nuance so it just seems heavy handed and ridiculous (and unlikely to make sense to children). All the sudden it goes from how to stop spreading viruses to how to stop spreading viruses and racism, without even explaining what the word means or why what it showed was racism, and that just makes things unnecessarily complicated.

Overall, I think this one is a dud. I don't see it being useful at all to make things less confusing for children. I'd pass on this and look for a book that better explains the pandemic and masks if you need help teaching your kid about what's going on in the world right now.

That's a shame, because what the author is attempting to do is great. The execution is just too poor.