Learn about sharks and their way of life, thanks to a punchy text, easily accessible to all, water-logged acrylic and pastel illustrations, and cool facts—"Sand tiger sharks give birth to just two live young— which is all that's left after those two have eaten the other six babies in their mother's belly." (OK, it's not really the mother's belly, but a 28-page picture book for young kids doesn't need to get into a shark sex ed discussion.) There’s the dwarf lantern shark, which is "just bigger than a chocolate bar," and black lantern sharks and swell sharks and cookie-cutter sharks, all of which will make readers fall madly in love with sharks (especially when they discover that only 3 types of sharks, out of 500 actually attack humans), even though they’ll shiver over the sharp-toothed shark on the cover. The ending is clever and sobering: "Every year, people kill 100 million sharks. If you were a shark swimming in the lovely blue sea, the last word you'd want to hear would be . . . human!"

This book will make a good kick-off to a bit of research to find out more about some of the shark species mentioned in the text. Start with the shark activities, facts, and pictures at www.kidzone.ws/sharks.


Themes:  FISHES. OCEAN. SHARKS.