Review by Booklist Review
This picture book introduces the six senses of sharks. Waters offers good information about how sharks use their senses differently than humans and, in particular, about sharks' extra sixth sense . . . electroreception, which helps them find their prey by sensing other animals' electric fields. However, the text moves from one sense to the next without ever summing up all six. Also, some of the statements seem imprecise or odd, such as the notion that sharks don't generally eat people, because sharks know that people don't live in their world. In addition to reassuring children about shark attacks, the concluding pages note that these fish are endangered and need protection. An appended section presents true-or-false facts about sharks and a few suggestions for learning more about the subject. Created with cut-paper collage and pastels, Barner's illustrations offer varied, colorful, and generally placid underwater scenes featuring different types of sharks, which are clearly identified. While the text could be stronger, kids will enjoy this attractive volume from the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-2-In this attractive picture book, Waters explains how sharks use six senses to great advantage. With distant touch, they detect minute changes in water current and temperature, and they hear vibrations over vast distances. With their gills, they smell underwater, and they can see in the dark. With nodes located in their throat and mouth, they can taste the animals they catch. Electroreception, sharks' unique sixth sense, enables them to detect creatures' electric fields, including the human heartbeat. The text employs useful, real-world examples. For instance, Waters compares a shark using electroreception to a beachcomber with a metal detector finding coins hidden under the sand. Spreads in bright yet gentle colors depict these animals and their prey, and the cut-paper collage illustrations soften the sharks' deadly actions. The introduction briefly addresses the threat of extinction as a result of human activities. Some anthropomorphizing ("big sharks could eat all the people they wanted.. But they don't, because sharks know that people don't live in their world.") detracts slightly from the information. VERDICT A suitable offering.-Frances E. Millhouser, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Although this is a straightforward book of information, it's built around an engaging narrative that introduces the other five shark senses, as well as the headline sixth one, electroreception. Almost every page features a different shark species illustrated in paper collage and pastels that suggest the underwater environment well (even if they lack detail). The afterword has additional information. Websites. Glos. (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Paper-collage portraits with only an occasional flash of jagged dentifrice illustrate this appreciative description of how sharks use their extraordinarily sharp senses to find prey.In Common Core-friendly fashion, an incomplete portrait gallery ("Just some of the sharks you'll meet in this book!") opens, and a true/false quiz closes, this Level 2 entry in the venerable Let's Read and Find Out series. Following a brief lead-in scenario, Waters explains how each sensesmell, hearing, sight, taste, a particularly sensitive "distant touch" and finally electroreceptionhelps the predators locate fleeing, hiding or injured fish. Barner pairs views of a dozen sharks (each attended by a label) rendered with simplified markings and, usually, closed mouths cruising through a variety of open, brightly colored marine settings. Only the hammerhead is shown eating, and that from a top view so that its mouth cannot be seen. Ruminative readers may have trouble buying the author's "common sense" argument that sharks seldom attack people because they "know that people don't live in their world," but his twin messages that they are both fascinating creatures and, in many cases, at risk from pollution and other human activity will likely be taken to heart. A distinct and refreshing change of pace from the usual melodramatic shark fare. (glossary, websites) (Informational picture book. 6-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
