Flying Ninja!

I’ll admit: I side-eyed the 56-minute runtime at first. How much depth can you pack into an hour? Turns out, *Flying Ninja!* doesn’t *need* depth—it needs a trampoline. This is the audiobook equivalent of a cartoon binge: bright, loud, and over before you’ve had time to question the physics of a 10-year-old backflipping off a lamppost. Christopher Gebauer’s narration is the star here. He doesn’t just *read* Nelson’s lines; he *performs* them, with a breathless, ‘did-you-see-that?!’ energy that’ll have kids mimicking his inflections by chapter two. His adult voices—especially Nelson’s clueless dad—are broad but never grating, and he nails the comedic pauses, like when Nelson ‘accidentally’ ninja-kicks a bully into a trash can. *Chef’s kiss.* That said, the story’s relentless pace is both its strength and its weakness. The lack of breathing room means some jokes land as blur (I had to rewind after the ‘ninja vs. school assembly’ scene—it moves *that* fast), and the ending feels abrupt even by short-story standards. A few more beats to let Nelson’s emotional arc sink in (yes, even in a book about cake-heisting ninjas) would’ve elevated it from ‘fun’ to ‘memorable.’ Still, the production is polished—no jarring volume shifts or awkward silences—and the sound effects (subtle but effective, like the *whoosh* of a thrown shuriken) add just enough texture without overpowering. If your kid loves *Dog Man* but you’re tired of reading it aloud for the 37th time, this is your audiobook lifeline. Just brace yourself for the inevitable ‘Can I *try* sticking to the ceiling?’ experiments afterward.