BOOK REVIEW OF TALES OF BUNJITSU BUNNY BY JOHN HIMMELMAN
Do you have a marital arts kid at home? Boy or girl. As a parent we had enrolled our children in a family Taekwondo school to help them work on self-confidence, discipline, improve their co-ordination and to learn how to defend themselves. In the new early chapter book by John Himmelman titled Tales of Bunjitsu Bunny
Each chapter is a stand alone lesson on its own starring Isabel. I love how this book has a girl as its main character showing her strength, cleverness, and persistence. When we think martial arts I think we usually expect a boy so this book might appeal more to girls then to boys as Isabel is the main character although her class is full of boys and girls.
In the first chapter the students are met with a locked door to their bunjitsu classroom. They try all of their bunjitsu moves but to no avail. Then Isabel opens the door from the inside and all of her classmates are in awe as to how she got into the room. She responds with ‘when door is locked, go through window’ thereby teaching a lesson of looking beyond strength to solve problems and thinking outside the box for solutions.
Another chapter I liked was when a ball got kicked across a stream and the students were trying to cross the stream to get the ball back. First, Kyle attempts to get across the stream by hopping from stump to stump only to fall in the stream. Next, Max tried to swing across using a vine but he too fell in the stream. Then Betsy tried by placing a stick across and tried to walk across on the stick only she too fell in the stream. Then Isabel tried, but what does she do first, she jumped right away into the stream. Then she climbed out and swung using the vine, hopped across the stumps and walked on the stick. She retrieved the ball for her classmates and again they were in awe. But they say to her, ‘you never needed to get wet’ and she responded with ‘but once I did get wet I never had to worry about it again.’ Another great lesson about facing a fear and tackling it right way so you can get on with what needs to be done.
My daughter isn’t old enough to read this book yet but I had my older boys read it and even though they didn’t like that it was a girl they did like that it had to do with marital arts. My eldest son’s favourite chapter was the one where Isabel takes on a Bear who studies bearjitsu. The bear says to Isabel that bearjitsu is better than her little bunny fighting. The bear kicks, flips and twists and little Isabel then asks her ‘do you give up?’ but Isabel turns around and kicks bear right into the clouds and when he lands the ground shakes and then she twists his arms behind his back which is when bear shouts ‘I give up’ and Isabel responds ‘that is something I do not know how to do’. He loved that this big bear got beat by the tiny little bunny.
The illustrations are simple, nice additions for this early chapter book for your early reader. Your girl will be in awe of this bunny who can throw farther, kick higher, and hit harder then any other bunny or bear around.
For more information on Tales of Bunjitsu Bunny
DISCLOSURE: This post does contain Amazon Affiliate Links. Read my full Disclosure Policy Here. I was provided this book from Raincoast Books in order to facilitate a review. All the opinions are my own or those of my children. I strive to only post reviews of books we have enjoyed or that I believe would be a good fit for my audience.
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Cheers,
Bonnie Dani
Educator, Writer, Blogger, Mom
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