How to spy on a shark

Three young people take a small boat out to sea. The oldest enters the water and observes a mako shark and her large pup. Back in the boat, the three catch the pup in a net and tag it. Then they drop a torpedolike robot overboard and watch as it follows the pup's electronic tag for miles, shooting video all the while. Trailing in the boat, they retrieve the robot and head for shore. The short, rhyming text comments on the action, which is more fully described in the appended notes. With simplified, rounded forms and soft colors, the illustrations give this adventure an idyllic look. The crew members seem surprisingly young to be tagging sharks and handling a $180,000 robot; while the flyleaf copy refers to them as marine biologists, they look more like a college student and two middle-school kids. Though the illustrations seem to represent a child's imaginings rather than actual marine biologists at work, the book's engaging title, topic, and jacket art will certainly attract an audience.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2015 Booklist

PreS-Gr 1-Animal fans will enjoy this simple picture book on the study of sharks. Relying upon concise sentences, Houran explains how marine biologists track mako shark pups by fitting them with tracking devices and using small robots that follow the sharks, recording their movements. The author provides more in-depth information about this process at the end of the book. Children will be drawn in by the soothing, serene illustrations, tinged with deep sea blue, that evoke a peaceful tone not usually associated with these animals. Educators seeking a younger, gentler alternative to Katherine Roy's excellent Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California's Farallon Islands (Roaring Brook, 2014) should consider this work. Pair Houran's informative and kid-friendly title with Tedd Arnold's Fly Guy Presents: Sharks (Scholastic, 2013) or Gail Gibbons's Sharks (Holiday House, 1992). VERDICT A splendid bridge for introducing very young readers to expository texts, and a useful addition to the 590s.-Martha Rico, El Paso ISD, TX © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

PreS-Gr 1-Animal fans will enjoy this simple picture book on the study of sharks. Relying upon concise sentences, Houran explains how marine biologists track mako shark pups by fitting them with tracking devices and using small robots that follow the sharks, recording their movements. The author provides more in-depth information about this process at the end of the book. Children will be drawn in by the soothing, serene illustrations, tinged with deep sea blue, that evoke a peaceful tone not usually associated with these animals. Educators seeking a younger, gentler alternative to Katherine Roy's excellent Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California's Farallon Islands (Roaring Brook, 2014) should consider this work. Pair Houran's informative and kid-friendly title with Tedd Arnold's Fly Guy Presents: Sharks (Scholastic, 2013) or Gail Gibbons's Sharks (Holiday House, 1992). VERDICT A splendid bridge for introducing very young readers to expository texts, and a useful addition to the 590s.-Martha Rico, El Paso ISD, TX (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

This lightly rhymed text uses the imperative voice to explain how a tracking robot can follow a shark ("Grip the pup and flip it over / Tag it. Let it go"), while the softly colored illustrations show a research team of one adult and two young people performing the task. Though simplified, this is an engaging introduction to field research in marine biology. (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Houran invites readers along as a group of marine biologists tracks and follows a juvenile mako shark.The marine biologists use a net to catch the young shark, attaching a tag to the pup's pelvic fin. They then use a robot to track and monitor the shark, keeping tabs on its movements and eating habits. At the end of the day, the scientists (two women and one man, one Caucasian and two of indeterminate ethnicity) pull up the robot and wave goodbye to the sharks. Unfortunately, the author misses the mark in choosing to write in second person. "Take a boat ride / out to sea / until you spy a fin. // Get all set / to get all wet / and splash! / go diving in." Instead of tagging along on an adventure, readers may feel like they are being given orders and instructions, and many will feel uncomfortable or not up to the task. The simple illustrations bring readers up close to the action, but they are not part of it, as the text suggests. Backmatter gives a little more information about the topics presentedsharks fall asleep when they are turned belly up; makos can swim up to 35 mphbut this would have captured more interest within the body of the text. The dichotomy between the adult tasks and the simply worded rhyming text makes this one to skip. (Informational picture book. 4-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.