  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 01/01/2015 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. - Copyright 2015 Booklist. School Library Journal - 03/01/2015 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 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Loading...
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