Viz recently released Naruto, The Boy Ninja, a chapter book treatment of its wildly popular franchise. Lori Henderson just posted her thoughts on Boy Ninja at Good Comics for Kids, praising the author for her skillful adaptation of the manga:

adaptation of the first few chapters from manga to prose came out very well. The writer, Tracey West has extensive experience not just with books for children, but also with adapting Japanese properties to chapter books, as she also wrote the Pokemon chapter books. She captures to feel of the characters and story very well, perfectly putting Kishimoto’s pictures into words. Nothing is lost in the translation not only from Japanese to English, but also into terms a younger reader can understand. At the end of the book there is also a glossary of Ninja terms explaining the most common words used in the book such as Hokage and Shuriken.

Click here to read the full review.