sharks – Page 2 – Mom Read It

Get Smart About Sharks!

Posted on June 1, 2016May 16, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Smart About Sharks, by Owen Davey (Aug. 2016, Nobrow Ltd), $19.95, ISBN: 9781909263918

Recommended for ages 5-10

Kids love sharks. Owen Davey’s Smart About Sharks is going to jump off the shelves and demand to go home with these kids. What’s not to love? There are great infographics giving out wild information (wait until you see all the different kinds of teeth found in sharks across the world), bright, brilliant artwork with a retro feel to it, and tons of facts about sharks, including a debunking of their status as maneaters: if you’re on a surfboard, you look like a seal, and the book has the artwork to prove it.

I love Nobrow/Flying Eye books. They produce beautiful art books that appeal to kids. They manage to find amazing authors and illustrators who know how to attract a reader’s attention and provide facts in a way that is exciting, interesting, and fun. I’ll add this to my nonfiction collection, and I’m buying one for my own home. My 3 year old can’t get enough of this book, and can tell me which shark is a basking shark, and that a megalodon tooth is as big as a person’s head. No, he didn’t read that by himself, but he remembers it every time he sees the basking shark picture, and the infographic that shows the sizes of a great white shark and human being in proportion to a megalodon. Like I said: kids love sharks, and this book knows it.

Add this to collections where animal books are popular.

Adventure, Animal Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Middle Grade, Tween Reads

Tristan Hunt is back in The Shark Rider!

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The boy who can talk to sharks is back at Sea Camp for another year in The Shark Rider!

When we last saw Tristan Hunt, he’d had a heck of a summer. He’d just learned that he was part of a very special group of kids: kids with underwater talents, whether it was the ability to speak to sharks, echolocation, the ability to communicate and change color like an octopus, or more. Invited to Sea Camp, a special summer camp that helped these kids develop their talents and do rescue work for the environment, Tristan and his friends ended up on the radar of J.P. Rickerton, a billionaire who leaves a trail of environmental havoc wherever he goes. This time out, though, the kids are a year older, a little more in command of their skills, and jump right into the adventure waiting for them.

Tristan Hunt and the Sea Guardians, Book 2: The Shark Rider, by Ellen Prager, (May 2015, Mighty Media Press), $49.95, ISBN: 978-1938063510

Recommended for ages 8-12

This time, there’s an emergency situation near the British Virgin Islands. Fish are dying in large groups, and sponge are disappearing from the area. Tristan and his friends are dispatched to the scene to see what they can find out. Is J.P. Rickerton on the scene again? You have to read it to find out, but I will tell you that there’s another wacko billionaire businessman making his appearance in The Shark Rider! Some of our favorite sea creatures are back this time, too, including Hugh’s buddy, Old Jack the Octopus, but there are some new animals on the scene, too, including a vegetarian shark and a mantis shrimp with an anger management issue. Who may be my new favorite minor character ever, and possibly my new spirit animal.

Ellen Prager ramp up the action in this second book, throwing the kids right into the heart of things. Where the first book was a little bit of Harry Potter with a dash of Percy Jackson, The Shark Rider adds some James Bond to the fun, with but she also gives us new gadgets (robo-jellies!), intrigue, and filthy rich villains. We also learn more about our oceans and the animals we share them with, including some very British sharks whose personalities are a bit more buttoned-up than the Bahamian bunch we met last time, but still witty and up for a tussle with the bad guys. You’ll root for the good guys, hiss at the bad guys, and have a blast reading this story.

Don’t forget, author Ellen Prager is a marine scientist and children’s author, with an author webpage that budding conservationists and marine biologists will love!

Make sure to read The Shark Whisperer and The Shark Rider by May – Stingray City is coming!

Animal Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Middle Grade, Tween Reads

Tristan Hunt and the Sea Guardians: Middle Grade marine adventure!

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Tristan Hunt and the Sea Guardians, Book 1: The Shark Whisperer, by Ellen Prager, (May 2014, Mighty Media), $9.95, ISBN: 978-1938063442

Recommended for ages 9-13

Twelve year-old Tristan Hunt is kind of a klutz. He trips and falls a lot, which garners him a lot of teasing at school and disappointed glances from his father at home. The luckiest thing happens to him, though, when he falls into a shark tank while vacationing with his parents in the Florida Keys – not only does he emerge unharmed, but shortly after the incident, he receives an invite to a very special summer camp – a summer camp where all the campers learn that they have special talents when it comes to the ocean and the creatures that live there. Tristan can communicate with sharks – that’s a pretty handy talent to have! – and once he’s in the water, he’s not a klutz at all.

That’s not all, though. The camp staff not only teach the kids to hone their abilities, but use them to protect and rescue sea life. They’re supposed to wait until they’re older and receive more training before they qualify for missions, but when critical mission pops up and the team is short-staffed, Tristan and his friends may have to save the day.

This is the first book in a middle grade series that Mighty Media was kind enough to send me, and I am thrilled that they did. With hat tips to both Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, this summer camp for gifted kids is packed with adventure and wonder – the kids are thrilled, yet nervous, about discovering and embracing their new abilities. There’s some great information about various forms of sea life in here, making this a must-read for kids with an interest in sharks, dolphins, octopuses, or any other sea creature. Once it’s established that the kids can communicate with the animals, they each exhibit their own personalities, which adds some fun to the mix (and the sharks with Jamaican accents are hilarious).

Author Ellen Prager is a marine scientist and children’s author, so she brings a great deal of expertise and knowledge to the book. Budding conservationists are going to want to have this book in their collections, too. Ellen Prager’s author webpage offers more information about her background, beautiful photos, fun facts, and printable puzzles to share.

The series is also perfect for your more conservative students and readers. It’s clean, the kids are respectful to adults and one another (mostly), and the adults are fun to be around while exhibiting concern for the kids’ welfare. We’ve got a villain who cares nothing for life outside of his own interests, and has the resources to make enough trouble for the Sea Guardians that we know he’ll be around for at least another book.

This is a fun series for both boys and girls that may have been missed when it hit shelves last year – make sure to give it a look and consider adding it to your shelves this year. I’m always a fan of finding a little magic in my tween realism when I can find it.