My Rating: 4 stars
It is starting to become a tradition of sorts for my nephew and I to read the latest installment of this Yo-kai Watch manga series together each time a new volume is released. This volume continues to be focused on the adventures of Nate, Whisper, and our favorite cat Yo-kai Jibanyan – while Nate continues to befriend more Yo-kai and add more medals to his collection (with his trusty butler Whisper by his side of course), Jibanyan continues to get himself in all sorts of lovely trouble, lol. Just like with the previous volumes we've read together, my nephew loves to insert his own commentary when we get to a newer Yo-kai that I might not be familiar with – he'll usually tell me which season (of the TV series) the Yo-kai is from as well as what its abilities are, which of course I'm appreciative of since I don't keep up-to-date with this stuff like he does. We had a lot of fun reading this volume and to us, this one seemed to be so much funnier than the previous few volumes we had read. I continue to recommend this series for Yo-kai Watch fans of all ages, as it's fun and yes, sometimes a little irreverent but there's usually a lesson to be learned in each book, so reading it together with a child is most ideal.
Speaking of children's books -- someone asked me once what my rating system is for books like this geared toward children and how do I determine whether a book is "good" or not. To be honest, I couldn't really answer the question because in general, I don't like to rate or review children's books if I can help it (this Yo-kai Watch series is an exception due to them being ARCs so I feel obligated to review). I've always been of the mindset that children's books should be true "leisure" reading and having to go through the process of critiquing the book and breaking down various aspects of it in a review makes it feel too much like work, which, to me, takes all the fun out of reading it. I'm not an educator so I haven't the slightest clue what types of books are considered "educational" for children or whether they meet certain criteria or whatnot. For me, the most important thing is that the child in my household (my nephew) has cultivated a love of reading due to being exposed to all sorts of books from a young age and now at 8 years old, he is already reading above his grade level. In terms of whether a children's book is "good" or not – for me, I'm concerned less with the content of the book and more with the experience of reading it. As long as the book doesn't contain anything blatantly inappropriate or offensive, we pretty much let my nephew read whatever types of books he prefers and if the subject matter is difficult or controversial, we make sure we read with him so we can help clarify and/or answer any questions he may have. Every household is different but for ours, this is what works best.
Received ARC from Viz Media / Simon & Schuster via Edelweiss.
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