Picture Books for Shark Week

We Loooove our library. We are there easily once a week, usually more.

As much as we love the library, it can be difficult to hunt for books with a small child in tow. She wants to look around and I end up having to chase her. To avoid having to search for books on shelves, I have the library put them on hold for me.  I can do this from my computer at home and the library emails me when the books are available. I can get books from either of the two branches this way, which is nice since many of the books we want to check out are at the main branch which is further away for us.  When I put books on hold, I can have the books we want in one place, let my daughter explore for more books, and then pick up our held books on the way out.

In honor of shark week, we picked up some books to (ahem) chomp into.

Here’s our haul!

There are a surprising number of shark picture books. I tried to get some that are age appropriate for my five year old. There are PLENTY out there that would also appeal to older kids.

Shark in the Park by Nick Sharratt: This is actually an easy reader, perfect for my little emerging reader. Watching this little girl discover reading has been one of the greatest experiences I have had as a parent so far. It’s amazing to watch her grow in this way. This is a cute book about a little boy who mistakenly thinks he sees a shark in the park using his new telescope. There’s no shark in the park! Or is there??

Gilbert the Great by Jane Clarke: This book forced me to google “remora” (I’ll save you the time, it’s a sucker fish that will attach itself to larger sea animals like sharks.) We really do learn something every day! This story is about Gilbert, a shark who loves his little friendly remora, Raymond. But Raymond and his family move away! Gilbert is sad, but there are new friends to be made.  A sweet book that deals with an issue most kids will have to face at some point in their childhood. Mine almost certainly will.

Clark the Shark by Bruce Hale: Clark is a shark who is a little over excited and tends to disrupt class. He needs to take it down a notch. A timely book for us, since E is about to start school herself.  Not that my angel will disrupt the class! But we can all use a refresher about how to behave.

Hark! A Shark! by Bonnie Worth: This is a book we own. In fact, we have most (if not all) of the Cat in the Hat Learning Library books. We love these books. They are educational and make some very complicated subjects more accessible for the 4-8 year old set.They rhyme, which I love in a children’s book (although sometimes the rhymes are a bit of a stretch!).The shark book talks about different types of sharks, their anatomy, their relationship with people and the environmental impact of shark hunting. It is definitely more on the educational side but perfect for younger kids who want to learn about sharks. I highly recommend all the books in this series for your little learners and budding scientists!

Shark Vs Train by Chris Barton: I’ve seen this book a number of times but we haven’t read it until now. It’s cute and my daughter thought it was hilarious. In a head to head battle of a shark and a train, who will win? That’s the question and it turns out it depends on the scenario these foes are placed in. Ultimately the book celebrates the imagination of children. Very cute.

Surprising Sharks by Nicola Davies: More on the educational side, this book talks about different types of sharks, their anatomy, their (small) threat to humans and humans’ (larger) threat to them. It also has an index which is neat and rare in kids’ books. We really enjoyed this one, lots of information here. We will check out more of these Read and Wonder books in the future!

I’m a Shark by Bob Shea: Sharks are brave and scared of nuthin’! (except maybe spiders).

How Many Sharks in the Bath by Bill Gillham: This book isn’t really about sharks, it’s a counting book. If you are looking to reinforce counting and number recognition from 1-10, I would recommend it.

Shark Baby by Ann Downer: This is a really sweet and educational book about a baby shark who is in his egg sac (or “mermaid’s purse”) and is unsure about which type of shark he is. The illustrations are lovely and this is a great introduction to different types of sharks for young kids. Also, who doesn’t love a story about baby animals?  The last few pages are dedicated to shark facts which will appeal to kids who want to read and learn more about sharks and their babies.

Shark Swimathon by Stuart J. Murphy: This is a math book, specifically about subtracting two digit numbers. Obviously the math part was over my daughter’s head but she enjoyed the story. It’s also about team work. I will definitely look into some of the MathStart books that are more age appropriate for her, as I think this is a neat concept.

We really enjoyed our shark books! We learned a lot and laughed a lot too. As is usually the case with checking out library books, we have entered a rabbit hole of more books we want to check out!

Happy reading! And Happy Shark Week (cue the Theme from “Jaws” here).