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Way of the Warrior Kid #4
Way of the Warrior Kid 4 Field Manual - Teaching Kids to be Their Best!
Eighth grade is wrapping up and Marc is bigger and stronger than ever. He's also smarter, healthier, and better because he's on The Warrior Kid Path! But when a schoolmate, who's moving away, wants to become a Warrior Kid too, Marc is faced with a dilemma: how do you get someone on The Path if they live halfway across the country?
The solution: you write a Field Manual. A Warrior Kid Field Manual!
Leaning on his experiences on The Path and his summers with his Navy SEAL Uncle Jake, Marc creates a fun-filled guide to help kids EVERYWHERE become Warrior Kids!
In the Way of the Warrior Kid 4 Field Manual, Marc breaks it all down, like the importance of doing the right thing, keeping your mind and body strong, and maintaining a great attitude. He gives tips for dealing with boring classes, impossible homework and annoying classmates. He shares how to make yucky vegetables taste good, cleaning your room seem fun, and turning bullies into allies. He shows you how to complete your first or fiftieth pull-up, what your first day at jiu-jitsu will be like, and why the snooze button is NOT your friend.
The Way of the Warrior Kid 4 Field Manual has everything a kid needs to get on The Path to becoming smarter, stronger, healthier, and better. And the whole gang is here too Uncle Jake, Kenny, Nathan, Nora, and Danny to make sure Marc doesn't take himself too seriously in the process. As if that's possible...
The solution: you write a Field Manual. A Warrior Kid Field Manual!
Leaning on his experiences on The Path and his summers with his Navy SEAL Uncle Jake, Marc creates a fun-filled guide to help kids EVERYWHERE become Warrior Kids!
In the Way of the Warrior Kid 4 Field Manual, Marc breaks it all down, like the importance of doing the right thing, keeping your mind and body strong, and maintaining a great attitude. He gives tips for dealing with boring classes, impossible homework and annoying classmates. He shares how to make yucky vegetables taste good, cleaning your room seem fun, and turning bullies into allies. He shows you how to complete your first or fiftieth pull-up, what your first day at jiu-jitsu will be like, and why the snooze button is NOT your friend.
The Way of the Warrior Kid 4 Field Manual has everything a kid needs to get on The Path to becoming smarter, stronger, healthier, and better. And the whole gang is here too Uncle Jake, Kenny, Nathan, Nora, and Danny to make sure Marc doesn't take himself too seriously in the process. As if that's possible...
224 pages, Hardcover
Published December 1, 2020
23 people are currently reading
277 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 21, 2021
My son and I love this book series. I definitely recommend it for kids of all ages.
November 24, 2022
The Field Manual pulls together the lessons of the main trilogy into an organized manual. Like a How To book for getting on The Path. Recommended as a teaching aid maybe while co-reading the first 3 books. I don't believe it's as effective as a stand-alone.
I personally enjoyed the narrative versions of the lesons much better in the first 3 books. They were easier to relate to and more grounded. Like fables vs. rules. I think humans do better processing and relating to the lessons in stories vs. instruction manuals. Still, for someone who has read the first 3, I could see this book being a handy reference guide. I believe teachers and parents have used it to help kids get and stay on "The Path".
The format has an advantage, which is that many of the lessons from the book are repeated in clearer ways than the original series.
Or:
There are a few new lessons that are called out more explicitly than in the books, such as the fact that learning some things takes time and patience.
And:
And:
I personally enjoyed the narrative versions of the lesons much better in the first 3 books. They were easier to relate to and more grounded. Like fables vs. rules. I think humans do better processing and relating to the lessons in stories vs. instruction manuals. Still, for someone who has read the first 3, I could see this book being a handy reference guide. I believe teachers and parents have used it to help kids get and stay on "The Path".
The format has an advantage, which is that many of the lessons from the book are repeated in clearer ways than the original series.
Uncle Jake taught me the difference between self-discipline and imposed disicpline. Imposed discipline is when someone else, like a parent, a teacher, a coach, or someone in a position of authority orders you to do something. They are telling you what to do so you can get better and it can be very helpful. Everyone can use help staying disciplined. Bu, that type of discipline isn't as strong as self-discipline. Self-discipline comes from YOU. It allows you to make yourself better, to push yourself even harder. True discipline comes from within.
Or:
There's a big difference between failing and losing. If you can apply what you learned from failure, you actually never lose. Uncle Jake always says "Win or Learn," which means you either succeed at your goal or you learn from failing to reach it. The only way you lose is if you're not disciplined in how you react to failure.
There are a few new lessons that are called out more explicitly than in the books, such as the fact that learning some things takes time and patience.
Realistically, it's going to take you about six months of going to jiu-jitsu class before you feel like you "get it". If you really want to get better, you should train at LEAST twice a week. If you can only go once a week, you might forget what you've learned the week before.
And:
Learning how to learn means you understand that LEARNING is a PROCESS. That process involves hard work, curiosity, focus, discipline, and patience. It doesn't matter if it's math, jiu-jitsu, mowing lawns, folding laundry, playing basketball, setting the dinner table... no one magically figures out how to do any of those things! You have to learn them! In order to learn them, you have to follow steps. Those steps are called a PROCESS.
And:
Uncle Jake also told me that kids who are good at lots of stuff sometimes get COMFORTABLE because they are so good at so many things. They think they can coast. That attitude can make them LAZY in the long run. They won't work as hard as you do to learn things. They might not even push themselves to get better at the stuff they're naturally good at! If they don't challenge themselves, they'll never reach their potential.
I wish I had gotten that lesson much younger. Took me far into my 20s for it to sink in.
My favorite section -- in terms of wisdome but also in terms of a fresh take on the lessons compared to the first 3 books -- was Section 6: Attitude....we also need to train our minds so that we have the right attitude. Attitude is how WE CHOOSE to look at situations in life. And our attitude shapes the actions we take in those situations. For a Warrior Kid, having a positive attitude is like having a super power! It protects you and helps you make the right decisions no matter how difficult the situation. But a bad attitude does just the opposite. It actually weakens you and makes things worse -- a lot worse!
This is a point of view that is not nearly common enough today. People walk around saying, "you MADE ME FEEL angry/sad/offended/etc." when the reality is that you should have more control over your reactions. This is not a new lesson. In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he says you should be response-ABLE, that is, able to manage your response to inputs.
In Jocko's general education, "DETACH" is the first key thing to do when approaching any situation, particularly challenging ones. This means you have to become dispassionate about it. The opposite of just reacting. This lesson wasn't explicit in the first 3 books, but he says it here:DETACH: Stay calm. You don't want to lose control of your emotions. FREAKING OUT is not an option, even if other people are. Take a deep breath and detach your emotions.
Detach, Evaluate, Identify, Take Action, Learn.
Such things come with a bunch of examples. The examples, in particular, can be great teaching aids when working with kids.
Another great lesson here -- and one that is new in the series -- is about sadness. That is, DETATCH doesn't mean to NOT FEEL anything.Sadness is a part of life. Just like happiness. Just like anger. Just like fear and just like excitement. And just like every other emotion, it's important to not let it control you. But that doesn't mean we should bury our sadness. While we should control our emotions, it doesn't mean having emotions is wrong -- emotions are great. It's how you work through them that's important.
In the discussion about foods, this gem appears:Maybe you're at a birthday party and it's all cake, candy, and chips.
It's not a big deal when this kind of thing happens. Just go with it. You don't want to complain and you don't want to act like you're SOOOOOO IMPORTANT that you MUST HAVE GOOD FOOD TO SURVIVE!! HA!
First off, Warrior Kids don't complain. They find solutions. They also don't blame others -- they help out others when they can.
So be appreciative that SOMEONE IS FEEDING YOU.
Darn skippy. In today's age when diet is like religion, it's helpful reminder that there are things more important than your own preferences sometimes. When I grew up, if you were at someone's house and they served you whatever, you ate it. These days, the whole "oh I don't eat X" I find self-centered and distasteful when there's not a hard medical reason for it, and it's good to see that there are others out there who feel similar.
There's also some wisdom of the kind that most kids aren't really exposed to. I'm not 100% sure how well this type of moralizing would work with kids. Seems much less effective than the first 3 books, so this should definitely not be a substitute for them.Do you remember when Uncle Jake told me that time was precious at the end of my seventh grade summer? Well, I remember! In fact, I'll never forget what he said. NO ONE gets a second chance with life which means we never get back the time we waste on things like computer games, goofy cat videos, social media, and LAZY DAYS! That's lost time that you could be spending doing the right thing, doing something REAL... like practicing jiu-jitsu, exercising, doing important chores, or hanging out with your friends -- doing the right things and LEARNING.
...
I know... I know... they're both super fun. IT can seem like the best time when you and your friends are pitted against each other, shooting it up, racing around and crushing high scores -- or crushing potato chips while binge-watching TV for hours! But think about it... what are computer games and videos actually doing for you? They aren't getting you better at anything REAL. They don't make you smarter, stronger, healthier, or better. They make you dumber, weaker, and less healthy!
June 13, 2024
Meh. I had high expectations for this book but it wasn’t really much. All it was was how to be a “Warrior kid” which I still like for all the people who want to be like that, but it didn’t do what I wanted to do: follow the storyline
January 31, 2021
A super life guiding manual for all those kids, parents and teachers who have read the Warrior Kid series.
July 20, 2022
This book is a great review of all the lessons Marc has learned in the first three books. Although the series starts off with Marc in fifth grade, my third grade students loved hearing me read it aloud last year. I’ll be reading the whole series to my new group next year. Great life lessons presented in an entertaining way!
February 10, 2022
Highly recommended to read with your kids. My 5-year-old daughter loved going over it every night, brought it to show and tell and it's trying to get her friends at school on the Warrior Kid Path.
December 30, 2025
It's kind of like a kid's version of the field manual. There appear to be typos:
On page 165 "This is going to be rough because not only is she going to be upset with you, she's also going to be very sad about the losing the plate."
On page 154-155, "And I've had a big ego at times where I thought I was the most important person ever born in the history of Ever! Ha! It's actually really important to have a balanced ego, where you aren't too meek, shy, and doubtful about yourself, but also not arrogant, conceded, or overconfident."
On page 165 "This is going to be rough because not only is she going to be upset with you, she's also going to be very sad about the losing the plate."
On page 154-155, "And I've had a big ego at times where I thought I was the most important person ever born in the history of Ever! Ha! It's actually really important to have a balanced ego, where you aren't too meek, shy, and doubtful about yourself, but also not arrogant, conceded, or overconfident."
September 21, 2024
Absolutely horrible. This book is destined to give your child an eating disorder. Multiple chapters are full of negative food talk, calling a long list of food “Garbage” that should NEVER be eaten. This book is sure to fill your child with food guilt for the rest of their lives. My 9 year old daughter was gifted this book and after seeing the crap written in it about food I let it become garbage too.
January 28, 2025
I have been reading this with my 10-year-old son at bedtime. This is one of the books in the series of the warrior kid stories. This one received three stars because it was a field guide manual and more of what it means to be a warrior kid and not so much a story. It was a little boring and hard to keep my son engaged. It did receive three stars though because it did give good tips and tricks on being successful in life, school, sports and friendships.
December 14, 2021
E read this out loud to the family every day back in January, but then we finished our read aloud daily challenge and I finally finished it on my own. Good reminder of all of the things we learned about and liked from the other Warrior Kid books.
June 5, 2025
I think that this book is a great book because it teaches kids and people everywhere to be healthy.
This book teaches life lessons that you can use in the real world. That's why I think people should read this book everywhere. When I read this book I thought it was amazing.
This book teaches life lessons that you can use in the real world. That's why I think people should read this book everywhere. When I read this book I thought it was amazing.
Read
January 4, 2022Great
April 30, 2023
Live by this
October 9, 2025
This is a far better book than the previous Warrior Kid book I’ve read (the first in the series). While it’s technically the fourth in the series, it works well enough on its own.
Much of my criticisms of the first book have been improved on with this book- There’s a little more leniency and some genuinely helpful advice for kids. The artist also had done some improvements, as the art is stylized but now it’s far more cohesive with how the adults are drawn. Marc looks less like Mickey Mouse next to Uncle Jake.
My biggest issue, still, is some of the language surrounding food that gives off some mixed messages. The initial statements on food are ‘DON’T EAT THIS JUNK!!’ only to later say in a few chapters ‘Well, it’s okay to have some ice cream and a cheeseburger now and then’. Same with the words ‘processed’, ‘machine-made’, ‘preserved’. Not that eating simpler foods and cutting out things like soda is a bad thing, in fact it’s important to get a balanced meal and not have too much of one thing.
However, my problem lies with a little lack in nuance that, realistically, a lot of our all-natural straight-from-the-dirt foods…have been processed! I know it’s a good book and that the ultimate goal here is to just get kids more active and eating balanced meals, but I do think that the line between processed/all-natural is pretty blurry here in the US and it’s okay to say that we should judge the food based on how it nourishes us rather than if a machine touched it. (Because realistically, most of our food is!)
I also believe that some of the language around food is loaded. It would be better to say ‘Soda/Chips/Donuts/etc taste good, but they don’t give us all the nutrients we need to be nourished, so we should eat other foods more instead.’ instead of ‘Donuts make you WEAK, they’re JUNK GARBAGE that’s BRINGING YOU DOWWWN’. It does tone it down at some points, but still!
Overall I do think this is a decent book and much better than its first predecessor. I was a big fan of field guides as a kid and this one isn’t too bad. There might be others that are better suited for your own kid, but I wouldn’t turn my nose up for this one.
Much of my criticisms of the first book have been improved on with this book- There’s a little more leniency and some genuinely helpful advice for kids. The artist also had done some improvements, as the art is stylized but now it’s far more cohesive with how the adults are drawn. Marc looks less like Mickey Mouse next to Uncle Jake.
My biggest issue, still, is some of the language surrounding food that gives off some mixed messages. The initial statements on food are ‘DON’T EAT THIS JUNK!!’ only to later say in a few chapters ‘Well, it’s okay to have some ice cream and a cheeseburger now and then’. Same with the words ‘processed’, ‘machine-made’, ‘preserved’. Not that eating simpler foods and cutting out things like soda is a bad thing, in fact it’s important to get a balanced meal and not have too much of one thing.
However, my problem lies with a little lack in nuance that, realistically, a lot of our all-natural straight-from-the-dirt foods…have been processed! I know it’s a good book and that the ultimate goal here is to just get kids more active and eating balanced meals, but I do think that the line between processed/all-natural is pretty blurry here in the US and it’s okay to say that we should judge the food based on how it nourishes us rather than if a machine touched it. (Because realistically, most of our food is!)
I also believe that some of the language around food is loaded. It would be better to say ‘Soda/Chips/Donuts/etc taste good, but they don’t give us all the nutrients we need to be nourished, so we should eat other foods more instead.’ instead of ‘Donuts make you WEAK, they’re JUNK GARBAGE that’s BRINGING YOU DOWWWN’. It does tone it down at some points, but still!
Overall I do think this is a decent book and much better than its first predecessor. I was a big fan of field guides as a kid and this one isn’t too bad. There might be others that are better suited for your own kid, but I wouldn’t turn my nose up for this one.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews