Bokuden and the Bully

Krensky, Stephen. Illus. Noll, Cheryl Kirk. Bokuden and the Bully. Minneapolis: Millbrook Press, 2009. 48 pages.
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ISBN 978-1-58013-847-5

​$6.95 USD 
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​Guided Reading: N      Lexile: 400      GLE: 2-4

Folk Tale, Children’s Literature, Tsukahara Bokuden, Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu, Kashima Shin Ryu

A boastful warrior uses his bravado to bully an old farmer and others while during a ferry crossing. With each encounter, his bragging becomes more unbelievable--and his actions more aggressive and violent. The passengers on the ferryboat will either respect him or fear him.

Except one.

A sleepy samurai, Tsukahara Bokuden, is awakened by the young warrior’s show. Despite his best efforts to explain he is not interested in a violent confrontation, Bokuden finds himself on the receiving end of a challenge to fight with sharp swords. While the bully may be stronger and faster than the men he fought in battles “too many to count,” Bokuden’s cleverness is more than a match to put this young warrior in his place.
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The overall narrative divides into four short sections, like acts of a play, based on the setting of the action. This will help prepare young readers for tackling more-involved chapter books with chances to manage and track their place and read it over multiple sittings. If used in guided reading practice, this also give parents and teachers opportunities to have rich discussions about the plot development, predict what will happen next, and reflect on cause-and-effect.

For young readers, this work can be read alone or with help for students in second or third grades. Watercolor illustrations appear on every page to give visual clues to the content in the text. The book also contains a glossary to help with some of the more challenging or unfamiliar English words such as “ferry,” “jab,” “merchant,” and “peasant.” The use of foreign words and names is limited to Bokuden, making this work easily approachable for a wide audience while, impressively so, maintaining the critical connection of the folk tale to its Japanese roots.

If sharing this work aloud with young children, the structure and illustrations lend themselves to dramatic reading, with unique personae for each character.

At the end of the book, Krensky included an afterword. Here, he explains what a folk tale is, the role of folk tales in teaching lessons, and gives a brief account of the life and adventures of the renowned swordsman, Tsukahara Bokuden.
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Readers can find the most important aspect of Bokuden and the Bully in the themes the book shares. Through descriptions and dialogue, Krensky reveals Bokuden as a model man of character in a dangerous age. Perhaps the best illustration of this is that, although he wears a sword, Bokuden’s greatest strengths are his humility, patience, creative thinking, and peaceful ways of handling the bully. While there are many reasons why I picked up this book, the way it delivers these critical lessons in today’s world are why it stays on my shelf.

Reviewed by Edward N. Smith, Budo Book Review

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