Sunday, December 5, 2010

Sharks by Beverly McMillan & John A. Musick


Sharks by Beverly McMillan & John A. Musick
Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers: 2008
Non-fiction

Summary:
This is an informational book filled with information about sharks. It is beautifully illustrated with bright, realistic pictures and full of interesting facts. Sharks gives a great overview of sharks as well as their history. The book starts with general information about sharks, what they are, what they look like, and their characteristics. From here it moves on to talk about how sharks live, what they eat, how sharks relate to humans, and explores different species of sharks.

Response:
I am not a shark person by any means so for me this book was just alright. However any shark lover, and many young boys, would love this book. As I started reading I thought back to a Kindergarten student I had in my teaching practicum – he loved sharks and he would have loved this book. The book does a wonderful job of organizing all the information and providing a good balance of facts and information along with fun tid bits. I would recommend this for readers starting right away in Kindergarten. It really addresses a certain category of readers (young boys) that we really want to encourage to read. A book like this I feel would really engage them. Kindergarten is young for them to fully understand everything that goes on in the book, but the pictures are pretty amazing to look at too.

For the Reader:
This is a book about sharks. It is going to show teeth and it may be a little scary. No, there are no sharks eating people, but it does warn you about the possibility. Depending on how you (or parents feel) you may wish to hold back on introducing this book until children are a little older. Personally, I do not see or have a problem allowing children in Kindergarten to be exposed to this. As previously mentioned I saw a book very similar to this in a Kindergarten class where students enjoyed it and parents were fine with it.

No comments:

Post a Comment