Little Shark: By Anne Rockwell

       In light of all the recent news coverage involving an increased number of shark sightings in my favorite vacation spots, the Outer Banks, I found it only appropriate to review a book about these fascinating and often misunderstood creatures. Little Shark, by Anne Rockwell, tells the story of a shark born in the deep, dark depths of the ocean. Soon his whole family, including his mother and forty-nine brothers and sisters swim away, leaving Little Shark all alone. He is left alone to fend for himself against bigger sharks, who want to gobble him up. He must swim fast to dodge the bigger predators and in order to find his own food. Little Shark grows and grows, as he grows the readers get to learn all about shark anatomy, behaviors, and many other fun facts. At the end of the story Little Shark turns out to be a big blue shark, which we learn means he could grow to be twelve or thirteen feet long! The author closes the book with an "Author's Note" section that sheds some light on more information about sharks, specifically focusing on the blue shark.
     As written on the inside, back panel of the book, Anne Rockwell's son wanted to read every book about sharks he could get his hands on, thus inspiring the writing of Little Shark. This also makes Anne Rockwell a trusted authority, who is well read in the area of sharks.Anne Rockwell's writing style of using a narrative story within an informational picture book lends itself perfectly to creating a kid-friendly way to learn all about sharks. Beginning the book with the birth of a shark and allowing the reader to follow the same shark across its lifespan helps to organize the wealth of information in a way that aids understanding and creates relationships among concepts. Full bleed, color illustrations by Megan Halsey depicting various ocean scenes, different types of sharks, as well as labeled informational pieces such as shark skeletons and other details of shark anatomy help to solidify the reader's understanding of the text. They also enhance the book's content by letting the reader see the entire anatomy of a shark labeled and compared against a human skeleton, which allows the reader to connect the two related concepts.
      This informational picture book is recommended for ages 3 to 7, as it teaches all about sharks using very basic language and brightly colored, cartoon-style illustrations. This picture book would be great for children who are interested in learning about sharks or ocean life in general. I would also recommend this picture book for teachers who are teaching lessons about animals or ocean life. I enjoyed the friendly and simplistic use of illustration that helped to simplify the content and make it developmentally appropriate for the targeted age group. Little Shark does a wonderful job of shedding a positive light on the misunderstood creatures that we have found ourselves seeing portrayed as monsters on the news every other week this summer.
   
 Picture Source: http://www.amazon.com/Little-Shark-Anne-Rockwell/dp/0802789552