Over the past few years, WWE has gone PG and began targeting children as an audience and it’s a move that has been successful. While kids have always been wrestling fans regardless of the era, now more than ever we’re seeing more and more really young kids at WWE events.
If you’re a parent of a young WWE fan, or you have a sibling, niece, nephew, or grandchild who is a fan of WWE then you should know about the WWE books in the DK Reader series. This series of books are designed to help kids learn to read and it thus broken up into five levels:
Pre-Level One: Learning to Read
Level One: Beginning to Read
Level Two: Beginning to Read Alone
Level Three: Reading Alone
Level Four: Proficient Reader
There are WWE books for all of these levels. This one we’re reviewing is the second edition of the John Cena level two book. This book is geared towards the child who has learned to read and has progressed to the point of being able to read to himself or herself without too much help.
I don’t have the first edition of the John Cena level two book that was written by Brian Shields, so I can’t tell you what the differences are between that version and this version written by Kevin Sullivan.
If you know a wrestling fan between six or eight, and a John Cena fan in particular, odds are they’ll enjoy reading this book.
It’s a small book. This hardcover book is only 31 pages long and that is with large text and some big colored pictures. It really is just about the right length for a young kid who will be trying to read it by themselves.
There are longer sentences and some increased vocabulary in this level two book compared to the others, but nothing overly complicated. It’s possible some kids will get hung up on some of the “bigger” words like “athleticism” and “captivated.” Sentence structure is very simple.
The book talks about Cena as a young boy being teased for liking hip-hop music and fashion, playing football, becoming a bodybuilder, and ultimately his training for wrestling and making it to WWE and become the top star in the company.
With fact boxes and a mini-biography, this is a book that young WWE and John Cena fans will probably be seen reading or flipping through often. If you know a young John Cena fan, then you should definitely give them this book as a gift. However, the suggested retail price is $14.99 and I’d say that’s a little too steep of a price. You can get the hardcover version (which is the one I have here to review) from Amazon for $11.95, or you can get the paperback version for $3.95. Go for the paperback version.
DK Reader Level 2 – WWE John Cena Second Edition gets a three out of five: GOOD.
* A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review.
