Once upon a time, many moons ago, I balanced precariously upon the cliffhanger of book one. Now I’ve devoured book two and am perched above another cliff.

“ ‘But that’s a story for another day.’

Nooooo!

I hate the waiting game!”

Me too, Ninja Kid! It feels like I’ve been waiting forever to read this book (March was forever ago, right?) and it didn’t disappoint. I think we’ve already established that I’m obsessed with all of Anh Do’s kid’s books and after only two books I think the Ninja Kid series is going to be my favourite.

They’re such feel-good books; they always make me smile and I come away from the experience feeling better about the world. In this instalment, Ninja Kid (Nelson) is up against all of the machines in Duck Creek, which are mysteriously coming to life each time it rains. There’s also a class excursion to the zoo that includes a stampede of zoo animals.

Once again Ninja Kid is teamed up with H-Dude (his best friend and cousin, Kenny) and awesome inventor Grandma Pat, who will always be my favourite character in the series. His mother is also there, but not in a starring role. In this book we find out just who that evil guy in the helicopter from the first book is and a little of his dastardly plan but the scene is set for Ninja Kid and helicopter guy to do battle another day.

Because Ninja Kid is sort of a superhero in the making his disguise of a sock fashioned into a mask is more than enough to deem him unrecognisable to everyone who knows him, even when he’s wearing the exact same clothes in Ninja mode and Nelson mode. However unbelievable this may seem, the precedence has already been established by many superheroes before him.

Both Nelson and Kenny face their fears in this book and the writing is often so corny it’s funny.

“ ‘I hate vacuum cleaners!’ said Kenny. ‘They suck!’

It was hard to argue with him!”

Jeremy Ley’s illustrations are magic! Some pages had two illustrations and there was only one page in the entire book that only had text. While Anh is one of my favourite kid’s authors, Jeremy has easily become one of my favourite illustrators. There’s humour in the pictures that matches that of the text, the expressions on the peoples’ faces are easy to ‘read’ and what’s happening in the book matches what’s happening in the pictures. I can’t believe how many kid’s books I’ve read where the illustrations have huge details that don’t line up with the description in the text, so finding illustrators that get it all right is a huge plus for me. Jeremy ticks every box and makes me wish he’d teach me how to draw.

I need the third book now please! ‘Coming soon’ is way too long to wait!