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Nature Storybooks
Surprising Sharks
Why does a swell shark blow up like a party balloon? What does a lantern shark use its built-in lights for? Full of fun facts, here’s a surprising book about sharks that kids can really get their teeth into.
"SHAAAARRRKK!" That’s probably the last word anyone wants to hear while swimming in the warm blue sea. But most sharks aren’t at all what people expect. In fact, those who think all sharks are giant, man-eating killers are in for a surprise! The compelling narrative, colorful illustrations, and captivating facts in SURPRISING SHARKS reveal that sharks come in all shapes and sizes - and probably should be more afraid of humans than we are of them.
"SHAAAARRRKK!" That’s probably the last word anyone wants to hear while swimming in the warm blue sea. But most sharks aren’t at all what people expect. In fact, those who think all sharks are giant, man-eating killers are in for a surprise! The compelling narrative, colorful illustrations, and captivating facts in SURPRISING SHARKS reveal that sharks come in all shapes and sizes - and probably should be more afraid of humans than we are of them.
29 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
2 people are currently reading
250 people want to read
About the author
Nicola Davies
166 books182 followers"I was very small when I saw my first dolphin," says zoologist Nicola Davies, recalling a seminal visit with her father to a dolphin show at the zoo. Enchanted at the sight of what she called the "big fish" jumping so high and swimming so fast, she determined right then that she would meet the amazing creatures again "in the wild, where they belonged." And indeed she did--as part of a pair of scientific expeditions, one to Newfoundland at the age of eighteen and another to the Indian Ocean a year later. In WILD ABOUT DOLPHINS, Nicola Davies describes her voyages in a firsthand account filled with fascinating facts and captivating photographs of seven species of dolphins in action.
Nicola Davies's seemingly boundless enthusiasm for studying animals of all kinds has led her around the world--and fortunately for young readers, she is just as excited about sharing her interests through picture books. The zoologist's latest offering puts a decidedly quirky twist on her years of experience: POOP: A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE UNMENTIONABLE is a fun, fact-filled guide to the fascinating world of poop across species. "As a zoologist, you are never far from poop!" the writer explains. "I've baked goose poop in an oven with my dinner, looked at bat poop under the microscope, and had my T-shirt stained pink with blue-whale poop. I was obviously fated to write this book."
The exceptional combination of Nicola Davies's zoological expertise and her first-rate children's writing is apparent in her remarkable catalog of award-winning titles. Her first book with Candlewick Press, BIG BLUE WHALE, was hailed by American Bookseller as an "artfully composed study" offering "language exactly appropriate for four- to seven-year-olds and precisely the right amount of information." In ONE TINY TURTLE, Nicola Davies's clear, compelling narrative follows the life of the rarely seen loggerhead turtle, which swims the oceans for thirty years and for thousands of miles in search of food, only to return, uncannily, to lay her eggs on the very beach where she was born. The author's next book, BAT LOVES THE NIGHT, is a tenderly written ode to a much-misunderstood flying mammal, the pipistrelle bat, while SURPRISING SHARKS--winner of a BOSTON GLOBE-HORN BOOK Honor Award--contains unexpected facts about another one of the planet's most infamous animals.
When she is not off on scientific expeditions, Nicola Davies lives in a cottage in Somerset, England, where she is lucky enough to have pipistrelle bats nesting in her roof.
Nicola Davies's seemingly boundless enthusiasm for studying animals of all kinds has led her around the world--and fortunately for young readers, she is just as excited about sharing her interests through picture books. The zoologist's latest offering puts a decidedly quirky twist on her years of experience: POOP: A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE UNMENTIONABLE is a fun, fact-filled guide to the fascinating world of poop across species. "As a zoologist, you are never far from poop!" the writer explains. "I've baked goose poop in an oven with my dinner, looked at bat poop under the microscope, and had my T-shirt stained pink with blue-whale poop. I was obviously fated to write this book."
The exceptional combination of Nicola Davies's zoological expertise and her first-rate children's writing is apparent in her remarkable catalog of award-winning titles. Her first book with Candlewick Press, BIG BLUE WHALE, was hailed by American Bookseller as an "artfully composed study" offering "language exactly appropriate for four- to seven-year-olds and precisely the right amount of information." In ONE TINY TURTLE, Nicola Davies's clear, compelling narrative follows the life of the rarely seen loggerhead turtle, which swims the oceans for thirty years and for thousands of miles in search of food, only to return, uncannily, to lay her eggs on the very beach where she was born. The author's next book, BAT LOVES THE NIGHT, is a tenderly written ode to a much-misunderstood flying mammal, the pipistrelle bat, while SURPRISING SHARKS--winner of a BOSTON GLOBE-HORN BOOK Honor Award--contains unexpected facts about another one of the planet's most infamous animals.
When she is not off on scientific expeditions, Nicola Davies lives in a cottage in Somerset, England, where she is lucky enough to have pipistrelle bats nesting in her roof.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
July 29, 2017
This is the AWESOMEST SHARK BOOK EVER!
Learnin' about sharks has never been so fun.
Did you know that:
- Sharks have been on Earth for 300 million years.
- The Dwarf Lantern shark is the size of a candy bar.
- Hammerhead sharks have nostrils as well as eyes on the ends of their "hammers."
- A shark can have up to 3,000 teeth. When one tooth wears out, another moves up to take its place. One shark can burn through 20,000 teeth in a lifetime.
- More people are killed each year by crocodiles, dogs, elephants, and pigs than are killed by sharks.
The illustrations by James Croft are terrific!
Highly recommended, even to those who are not fans of carnivorous fish.
Learnin' about sharks has never been so fun.
Did you know that:
- Sharks have been on Earth for 300 million years.
- The Dwarf Lantern shark is the size of a candy bar.
- Hammerhead sharks have nostrils as well as eyes on the ends of their "hammers."
- A shark can have up to 3,000 teeth. When one tooth wears out, another moves up to take its place. One shark can burn through 20,000 teeth in a lifetime.
- More people are killed each year by crocodiles, dogs, elephants, and pigs than are killed by sharks.
The illustrations by James Croft are terrific!
Highly recommended, even to those who are not fans of carnivorous fish.
August 29, 2014
Wow, I'm not a shark person but I really enjoyed this non-fiction picture book. This is one of those books that can be read out loud at storytime and still has tons of interesting facts. By following the large bold text and picking and choosing what small print to share you can tailor is book to almost any age group. You can present the story and maybe have some kids interested in bringing it home for a closer look.
January 23, 2021
Fairy-Light, party balloons, scrap of old carpet, monster's DIY kit... what am I reading about? Can you imagine a way to describe sharks like this? You will gain as much info as you from a Discovery show about sharks. Amazingly written non-fiction book by zoologist author. Well deserving 5 stars for this book.
September 6, 2018
I love a shark. And this book is chock full of brilliant shark stuff. A real fave in my book corner.
October 29, 2018
Makes me really want to help sharks from getting hunted in the ocean by humans and making us feel less scared of sharks! Overall, really enjoyed reading this!
January 24, 2021
What an informational book about different kinds of shark's in the world. This book is so informative
that shows the internal organs and the external organs of the shark. If your kids read this book they will know more about sharks.
that shows the internal organs and the external organs of the shark. If your kids read this book they will know more about sharks.
October 29, 2018
This quite a funny book and makes sharks seem a lot less scary than we know them to be. It also states some facts about humans killing many more sharks than they do us and gets you thinking about the impact humans have on them rather that the other way around. I think KS1 and maybe lower KS2 would find it very funny but at the same time very interesting and would be quite enthusiastic about it. I also feel like it maybe something they could become quite passionate about and want to help them, in order to save the ocean rather than be scared of them. There is so much you could do with this book. It’s also brilliant to work with measurement as it gives you the difference in sizes of many different sharks. It also looks at the body of a shark, inside and out, its senses.
April 17, 2018
This is a very interesting and fun book which really will surprise you! Shorter than A4 in height but slightly wider this picture book is filled with lots of thick and colourful glossy pages with some great images and text. ‘Surprising Sharks’ is all about the world of sharks and is a great way of introducing kids to these fascinating creatures. Being part of the Nature Storybooks series the book is actually a non-fiction and contains lots of interesting facts and fun pictures.
The book begins by dispelling the big myth that sharks are scary man-eating creatures. Most sharks aren’t and it goes on to describe several sharks with interesting features that make them anything but scary to humans. As you read through the book you learn about different types of shark and how to tell if a creature even is a shark. This particular section is interesting as there are two pages showing the outer and inner parts of a shark and even as an adult I learned some interesting facts, like how the skin is made to be hard wearing and how the jaws are attached to the rest of the body and how they move when biting on prey. There are lots more interesting facts about sharks and then at the end of the book there is some great information on how dangerous sharks really are to humans and how the reverse is much worse.
The illustrations are quite simple but very fun. I love the bright colours and the way all the different sharks look. It’s quite a fun and colourful book compared to some of the ones found in the Nature Storybooks collection but I love it all the more for this and I think lots of kids will love this style of illustration too. The front and back double pages of the book are filled with images of different sharks, their names and sizes displayed next to them and the sharks are all shown next to each other in their relevant sizes which makes the Dwarf Lantern and the Cookie-Cutter sharks look so tiny and quite cute!
I really have enjoyed reading this book even as an adult and I know I would have loved this book as a child. The book is just so informative and it really changes your perspective on sharks, I actually quite like them now! The book has a page at the back on how to use this both as a parent and a teacher and this book does support Key Stages 1-2 of both science and English making this not only a fun and informative read but also a great book to use as a teaching aid for kids, whether at school or home. I really recommend this book to anyone interested in teaching kids about sharks or even if you are afraid of them to have a read as it might just change your mind and see them in a new light.
-Thanks to Walker Books for a free copy.
The book begins by dispelling the big myth that sharks are scary man-eating creatures. Most sharks aren’t and it goes on to describe several sharks with interesting features that make them anything but scary to humans. As you read through the book you learn about different types of shark and how to tell if a creature even is a shark. This particular section is interesting as there are two pages showing the outer and inner parts of a shark and even as an adult I learned some interesting facts, like how the skin is made to be hard wearing and how the jaws are attached to the rest of the body and how they move when biting on prey. There are lots more interesting facts about sharks and then at the end of the book there is some great information on how dangerous sharks really are to humans and how the reverse is much worse.
The illustrations are quite simple but very fun. I love the bright colours and the way all the different sharks look. It’s quite a fun and colourful book compared to some of the ones found in the Nature Storybooks collection but I love it all the more for this and I think lots of kids will love this style of illustration too. The front and back double pages of the book are filled with images of different sharks, their names and sizes displayed next to them and the sharks are all shown next to each other in their relevant sizes which makes the Dwarf Lantern and the Cookie-Cutter sharks look so tiny and quite cute!
I really have enjoyed reading this book even as an adult and I know I would have loved this book as a child. The book is just so informative and it really changes your perspective on sharks, I actually quite like them now! The book has a page at the back on how to use this both as a parent and a teacher and this book does support Key Stages 1-2 of both science and English making this not only a fun and informative read but also a great book to use as a teaching aid for kids, whether at school or home. I really recommend this book to anyone interested in teaching kids about sharks or even if you are afraid of them to have a read as it might just change your mind and see them in a new light.
-Thanks to Walker Books for a free copy.
July 26, 2025
British author/illustrator team Nicola Davies and James Croft deliver some sharkish surprises in this engaging and informative work of picture book natural history for the younger set. Starting out with the premise that this category of fish is often very frightening to humans, the book delves into the unexpected characteristics of various shark species, discussing their exterior and interior anatomy, and their behaviors. The narrative concludes by noting that while sharks kill an estimated six humans per year, we kill around one hundred million of them, and then closes with an index, and a list of additional facts about sharks...
One of a number of books about different kinds of animals I have read from Davies recently, after such titles as One Tiny Turtle and Bat Loves the Night , Surprising Sharks more than lived up to its name, offering a number of ideas and facts previously unknown to me, from the diversity of shark species—there are around 500, of all shapes and kinds—to the disproportionate destruction caused by the humans and sharks, in their relationship with one another. The tone here was light, managing to impart lots of information in a fun way, while the accompanying artwork from Croft, done in acrylic and pastel, was humorous and appealing, with a cartoon-like style that matches the tone of the text. Recommended to young shark lovers, but also to children who may feel some fear of these awesome creatures.
One of a number of books about different kinds of animals I have read from Davies recently, after such titles as One Tiny Turtle and Bat Loves the Night , Surprising Sharks more than lived up to its name, offering a number of ideas and facts previously unknown to me, from the diversity of shark species—there are around 500, of all shapes and kinds—to the disproportionate destruction caused by the humans and sharks, in their relationship with one another. The tone here was light, managing to impart lots of information in a fun way, while the accompanying artwork from Croft, done in acrylic and pastel, was humorous and appealing, with a cartoon-like style that matches the tone of the text. Recommended to young shark lovers, but also to children who may feel some fear of these awesome creatures.
January 3, 2018
When someone talks about sharks to children, they most often think of big scary sharks that eat people. This book introduces young readers to many different species of shark, both big and small, and shows that there is more to sharks than pointy teeth and scary movies.
This is book is really colourful, full of illustrations and even includes some cool diagrams of sharks and their anatomy. It also cleverly handles a sensitive topic - that actually humans kill more sharks than sharks probably skill humans! I love that the author has tackled this subject in the hopes to educate young people to be kind to nature - even to the animals which you might (sometimes wrongly) assume are scary and mean.
Beautiful, colourful and a really fun way to educate young readers - a perfect addition to any child's animal collection.
ARC provided free from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.
This is book is really colourful, full of illustrations and even includes some cool diagrams of sharks and their anatomy. It also cleverly handles a sensitive topic - that actually humans kill more sharks than sharks probably skill humans! I love that the author has tackled this subject in the hopes to educate young people to be kind to nature - even to the animals which you might (sometimes wrongly) assume are scary and mean.
Beautiful, colourful and a really fun way to educate young readers - a perfect addition to any child's animal collection.
ARC provided free from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.
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October 1, 2021This was an informational book about sharks and about the many different kinds of sharks, there are. It talked about how sharks are similar but not all the same. Some lay eggs and some lay sacks. Some are big and some are really small. Some eat plankton and some eat bigger fish. The list goes on and on about the similarities and differences in the many types of sharks in the world.
This would be a good book to use to teach students about sharks and water animals. You could do a land animal, an air animal, a water animal, etc., and teach about a few animals from each section so the students understand the different types. For sharks, you could have the students take a string and measure out how long some of the sharks are in the book, and compare how big or small they are to each other.
This would be a good book to use to teach students about sharks and water animals. You could do a land animal, an air animal, a water animal, etc., and teach about a few animals from each section so the students understand the different types. For sharks, you could have the students take a string and measure out how long some of the sharks are in the book, and compare how big or small they are to each other.
September 25, 2017
I thought this book was so cute. I loved the pictures and graphics and the fonts. The book had great information about sharks and how they live. The pictures at the front and back of the book show the different types of sharks and how big they are. There are small sharks and big sharks and all sorts of sharks in between. There are pictures of the make-up of sharks and also how they survive. I loved how at the end the book shares how sharks only kill 6 people a year whereas humans kill 100 million of them. There is a picture that shows some of the products people which have elements of a shark in them. Sharks are magnificent creatures and they should be respected and so should their home.
November 6, 2020
The genre of this book is informational. This is a great book for children about sharks. I like this book because it has a variety of facts about many different facts, and the book explains them in a way for children to understand, avoiding words that could be too difficult for young students. The book also has great labels, illustrations and diagrams within it. I would use this book for the writing format for an activity where students write facts they learned from the book or comparing and contrasting different types of sharks. This book could also be used for a student independent reading if they are interested in learning about sharks.
April 17, 2021
If you want a great book to both entertain and teach your kids about sharks, this is the book. There are a few really well executed books we've read about animals that are fun and educational and this hits the mark and reminds me of some of our other favorites: Give Bees a Chance and Beware of the Crocodile. Enjoy, learning about sharks.
October 27, 2017
I can’t count the number of little boys I’ve met (and girls!) who are fascinated by sharks. This would be great for any classroom, but especially a K-2 in which there are some shark-lovers. But the best part about this book is how it helps readers recognize that sharks are not nearly the threat they are frequently perceived as, and are actually threatened themselves. It is great for students to be exposed like these early-on so they have a more realistic perspective on animals and their contributions to the environment.
October 24, 2018
The author is a zoologist. This book does a particularly good job comparing the types of Sharks -little to Big - and sharing some surprising kinds. I liked the “outside” anatomy spread and “inside” anatomy spread to share the features sharks have in common.
Opens with the word Shark! As being scary to a human and ends with the word Human! Being scary to a shark. Candlewick, 2003)
Opens with the word Shark! As being scary to a human and ends with the word Human! Being scary to a shark. Candlewick, 2003)
June 12, 2019
I think this book could be added into a biology unit about the ocean, maybe have this along side books about marine mammals and other fish.
I think that the information given in this book was very insightful and would add nicely to many different educational ventures
I think that the art used was kind of silly and fun which will help keep students engaged.
I think that the information given in this book was very insightful and would add nicely to many different educational ventures
I think that the art used was kind of silly and fun which will help keep students engaged.
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September 24, 2019Informational Book
This books allows readers to learn about many different kinds of sharks in a fun and cute way. There are tons of pictures that allow readers to visually see how many different sizes and shapes sharks can be. It also allows the reader to learn about all the different parts and fins sharks have and what the are used for. Over 100 million sharks are killed per year by humans.
This books allows readers to learn about many different kinds of sharks in a fun and cute way. There are tons of pictures that allow readers to visually see how many different sizes and shapes sharks can be. It also allows the reader to learn about all the different parts and fins sharks have and what the are used for. Over 100 million sharks are killed per year by humans.
June 28, 2017
I really enjoy finding an interesting non-fiction book that makes for an entertaining read-aloud! I do wish, however, that the pictures were photographs instead of drawings, as I find that that's what kids want when reading a non-fiction book.
July 20, 2021
Storytime at the park: July 20, 2021
Theme: Sharks
A great nonfiction book for a readaloud--full of interesting and varied facts and written simply and clearly so children of many ages can engage at their levels.
Theme: Sharks
A great nonfiction book for a readaloud--full of interesting and varied facts and written simply and clearly so children of many ages can engage at their levels.
December 27, 2016
definitely niche book for that type of kids who wants to know everything about sharks etc. not really for esl kids. all the info wore them out.
August 29, 2017
I learned a lot about sharks, which is awesome!
August 30, 2017
August 2017 - Ben is totally fascinated by this book - we've read it two nights in a row, and he has lots of questions about the names of different sharks and what's happening in the pictures.
May 16, 2018
This book is an informative book about all the different sharks we have. The book is very bright, colourful and engaging. Would recommend for children researching the ocean.
July 29, 2018
Had to read something for Shark Week! Interesting book with two levels of text. Great for a growing reader interested in sharks.
January 16, 2019
interesting facts
March 24, 2019
Lots of great facts about sharks, perfect for an early elementary read-aloud.
April 15, 2019
Fun and informative
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September 26, 2019This book has some interesting facts about sharks. From the smallest shark, dwarf lantern shark, to different or weird shaped sharks, cookie-cutter sharks.
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October 15, 2019This book is just about the many different and surprising kinds of sharks such as dwarf lantern sharks and all the many different and weird shaped sharks as well.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews