Ninja Baseball Kyuma Volume 1
Kyuma, the last of the Hattori clan of ninja, lives and trains on the mountain with only his dog, Inui, for company. Kaoru is the captain of the Moonstar community baseball team, made up of elementary-school students. One of his teammates tells Kaoru that he will find help for the team on the mountain, and sure enough Kaoru finds Kyuma there. The young ninja, who knows nothing of the contemporary world, thinks that Kaoru is his liege lord and that the game of baseball is a literal battle against the other team. Will Kyuma’s new team members realize he’s a real ninja, and will Kyuma ever figure out that baseball is just a game? This is the first of a new manga series aimed at young readers, introducing them to the hallmarks of the genre: the right-to-left format, stylized figures, and lots of movement lines and explosive sound effects. This has plenty of action and humor to entertain kids who are curious about manga but not yet ready for the more mature options. Grades 2-4. --Kat Kan