Think Like a Shark: Avoiding a Porpoise Driven Life

Sherman's Lagoon #17

by Jim Toomey

Collecting more than 42 weeks of Jim Toomey's Sherman's Lagoon, this collection transports readers to an imaginary lagoon near the South Pacific island of Kapupu, where a cast of coral-reef critters battles the encroachment of the hairless beach apes (a.k.a. humans).

Commenting on such timely issues as rising sea levels and changing weather patterns, inhabitants of Toomey's nautical neighborhood include Sherman, an always-hungry but otherwise typical great white shark; his witty pearl-wearing wife, Megan; friendly Fillmore the turtle; geeky fish Ernest; macho hermit crab Hawthorne; and salty old Captain Quigley. Inside Sherman's Lagoon, these bottom-dwelling denizens offer under-the-sea hilarity, along with a real-life call to action in relation to protecting our environment, oceans, and all marine life.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Comic Strips

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 2, 2012

About the author

Jim Toomey is an internationally published humor writer and syndicated cartoonist best known as the creator of the popular comic strip Sherman’s Lagoon, published daily in over 150 newspapers including The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune. Jim has produced 28 Sherman’s Lagoon books, published by Andrews McMeel, and most recently a travel memoir, entitled Family Afloat, about his two years sailing the world’s oceans with his wife and family.

Sherman's Lagoon combines two of his lifelong interests: art and the sea. In addition to drawing his comic strip, Jim is active in ocean conservation and serves on several nonprofit boards, including the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Jim has given talks at a variety of venues, including the Royal Society in London, Harvard University and twice at TED. The conservation message in his comic strip earned him the Environmental Hero Award in 2000, presented by NOAA “for using art and humor to conserve and protect our marine heritage.” Jim won the award again in 2010.

Jim holds degrees from Duke and Stanford. He currently lives in Annapolis, Maryland, with his wife and two children, where he tries to get his family back on a sailboat as frequently as possible but can rarely make it happen.

Reviews

[Clayton Gallaway · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Sherman’s lagoon and this is a great read.

[Rex Libris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sherman's lagoon is one of my favorite strips. Among the story arcs in this collection is the Big Kanuna falling in love with a statue of Venus, Hawthorne visits a dog pound, the guys get into the women's room at the lagoon country club, and Ernest and Sherman visit the North Sea and the Sargasso Sea.

Favorite exchange in the book is when sherman enters a professional eating contest. Hawthorne says he will be Sherman's manager so sherman can concentrate on what he does best. To which Sherman replies, "disappointing my wife?" Hawthorne replies, no the thing you do second best.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hee Hee Sherman is hilarious.