Splash Dance

Harry Hammer #6

by Davy Ocean, Aaron Blecha (Illustrations)

Harry Hammer enters a school dance contest in hopes of winning a fin-tastic prize in this sixth Shark School (mis)adventure.

Everyone in Shark Point is talking about the end-of-the-year school party. There’s a dance contest with a super-cool Fintendo DS game system up for grabs! Harry’s got his eye on the prize, but he needs someone to help him with his moves...especially when number one enemy Rick Reef enters the contest. Can Harry get into his groove and beat the competition?

Genres: Kids

128 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2014

About the author

Davy Ocean is the pseudonym of a collective of writers from the creative agency Hothouse Fiction, based in London.

Reviews

[Deacon Yeager · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really mad at Harry's mom when she told him he couldn't have a Fintendo.

I think the best part was when Harry meets the Shark Beatz and they teach him how to dance so he can win the competition.

[寿理 宮本 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book has some good points, hence my four-star rating. It has some bad points, too, mostly in terms of

- accurately representing the hyperbolic nature of young kids in particular to declare something/someone (usually, parents) to be the WORST EVER based on completely normal rules or demands like "Study, or be grounded, and DEFINITELY no brand new video game system that literally just came out and I don't know how any modern kid wouldn't already have known about it months in advance" (although, this is mostly me cringing at probable bad behaviour I exhibited myself at that age),
- naming "shark" items by renaming human items but shoehorning in some sea-based words, like "Fintendo SeaWii-DS" and "Plaicebook" in the manner of Geronimo Stilton and mouse/cheese-related words (despite cheese being BAD for mice), and
- ...how exactly does shark paper and shark electronics work?

Suspending disbelief of all that, it's a decent story, though! At its core, it's about Harry the Hammerhead Shark learning about the importance of studying and hard work. The ending is a bit predictable, since not only does he find motivation to study after all, but he also LOSES the dance contest he wanted to enter to win the game system... only for his parents to be so impressed by his studying that they buy it for him anyway.

I do take slight issue with the gender-coded game system as the prize for the dance contest, though, since—from the school's point-of-view—that has unintended consequence of suggesting that certain students should have won it over others. It's POSSIBLE that since the game system was LITERALLY just released that it was the only one left for them to obtain as a prize, but that feels like a generous interpretation, especially given Harry's reaction.

Overall, a surprisingly good book, after you (I) get past my hang-ups, haha.

[Erica Cizek-Vogen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a big fan of the tired gender assignments and the excessive “girls are so dumb” themes of this book. At. All.

[Gracie Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Because he had a partner and then they weren’t together. They should have won but the judge was too mean. I liked when they the bear got in the air."

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

My nephew loves this series, and I must admit I love it too.

In this one, Harry really want a Fintendo Sea-Wii Ds. His parents tell him no, and that he needs to worry more about his school work.

That doesn't make Harry very happy. (It didn't make my nephew very happy either.)

Then the teacher informs them that there is going to be a dance contest at the end of year party and the prize is a Fintendo! Harry gets all excited and decides he will win that prize.

Along the way, Harry makes some new friends, and finds new skills he didn't know he had. Though, leave it to Harry it seems to be a devastating skill.

Things don't go exactly as planned for Harry, but maybe they go better.

[Tyrone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boys liked the twist on works, like Fintendo