You Might Be an Angry Ninja
This riotous children’s picture book series by Mary Nhin has a ninja for every emotion. What is yours?
I was a very angry kid with lots of heavy emotions that were hard to explain. Often, because of the arguing, and my mother’s late working hours, I had a hard time sleeping. One day, I got into a fight with a teacher because I was tired and she said something that made another kid snicker at me, so I smacked her. Then I ran.
I was sent to the principal’s office where he had a file on me that was thicker than a snicker. I was already turning into that kid. I braced for him to call my mother and for that to be followed by a mid-day pickup and an early afternoon thrashing, but I was surprised when he sent me to our guidance counselor, a well-read, well-stressed woman with a bookshelf the size of Manhattan. She knew from my file that I loved story time and was inclined to make up my own stories. She gave me a book and told me that we were going to read it together. The book came in a complete series and tackled a wealth of issues from fighting with family to fighting with friends. In the 80s it was even adapted into a television show that was repackaged and broadcast on PBS in 2003. She had the VHS recordings on her bookshelf long after DVD became a thing. From that day on, for an entire year, I’d sit in…
