All About Sharks

All About...

by Jim Arnosky

In All About Sharks, Arnosky shows how these animals grow and live, answering kids' biggest questions about sharks, such as: How do sharks find food in the dark ocean water? What do shark fins do? How many teeth do sharks have? What was the biggest shark ever? Packed with intriguing information and brought to life by Arnosky's vibrant watercolors, this book will fascinate young readers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Picture Books, Science, Animals, Childrens

26 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2003

About the author

Jim Arnosky was born in New York City, NY Sept 1, 1946. He was raised in Pennsylvania. Jim graduated from high school in Philadelphia and joined the US Naval Reserves. His active duty took him to Maryland and Bremerhaven, Germany.

In 1976 Jim and his wife Deanna moved to Vermont with their two daughters where they have lived in an old farmhouse for the past 28 years. 17 of those years were spent raising sheep.

Jim is self taught in writing, art and the natural sciences. He has written and illustrated 86 books on nature subjects and has illustrated 46 other books written by various authors. He has been awarded the Christopher Medal, Orbis Pictus Honor, ALA Gordon Award, and Outstanding Science book awards from National Science Teachers Associations.

Jim loves to fish, boat, and play his guitar. In his work, he uses a Betacam SP video camcorder with a 1600 mm lens to record the wildlife he and Deanna find all across the country.

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picture-book creator Jim Arnosky turns to the world of sharks in this eighth entry in his All About... series, meant to highlight different kinds of animal life. He comments upon the great antiquity of sharks, who have been swimming the oceans for millions of years, and discusses the various kinds of shark - more than 250 species, worldwide - and the details of shark anatomy and reproduction. Perhaps realizing that his topic is intimidating for some (others relish it, of course), he also includes a page on shark safety, and concludes the book by mentioning that there are some kinds of shark - whale sharks, basking sharks, megamouth sharks - about which we know very little...

Like its predecessors, All About Sharks is an engaging work of natural history for the picture-book set, pairing an informative text with appealing artwork. I myself learned a few things I didn't know, including the fact that sharks have no bones (they have cartilage instead), and that some of them lay eggs, while other give birth to live young. This last surprised me, as sharks are a sub-category of fish, and live birth is very rare in the piscine world. I did know that shark skin is rough, not smooth - I got to touch a shark once, during a school field trip to an aquarium - so I was pleased to see that fact included. Despite the fact that there is no list of further reading - something I have lamented when reading the other books in this series - this is one I would recommend to young animal lovers, particularly those fascinated by sharks.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting information about sharks, and great illustrations.

[James Biser · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent introduction to sharks and the different types of sharks found through the world. It discusses their habits and their common activities. It is an educational read.

[Carly Hales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boys loved it! Just the right amount of facts and great pictures for kids to be engaged. We just love Jim Arnosky.

[Kymberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great short book about sharks, very interesting. It does feed the macro-evolution theory.

[Willow · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent overview. It could have been more detailed, but I if it was fine for a kid's intro if used with other resources.

[Kaitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book answers every question I had about sharks and even begins with a life size image of a shark mouth on the opening page. It is accurate with well-illustrated pictures that bring what you are reading to life. The drawings have the correct markings, colors, and shapes for sharks, teeth, and fins. I loved this book because I found the book to be well organized and filled with fun trivia facts. I learned that sharks attack in shallow water, for the most part, because that is where fish get trapped in gullies which makes it easy pickings for a shark. Since this is also where humans like to swim, it is inevitable that some sort of attack will occur every once in a while. There is a list of safety tips at the end so that the reader can be safe the next time they go to a shark infested ocean.
The sketches of each shark do help the reader visualize and comprehend this important topic. This book clears the fear of the great mystery of sharks and makes it understandable why sharks are the way they are. I feel like this would be a great book to show people of every age because one of the greatest fears is the fear of the unknown which is why we have a ‘Shark Week’ on TV once a year. We are learning more about sharks all the time and this book gives you a great starting point for understanding the shark world. The colors in the illustrations were beautiful, especially the sea backgrounds with the various blues, greens, and browns.

[Brittany Dalziel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personal Reaction: I really enjoyed this book. The illustrations are what makes this book so great. I like how, in this book, the actual size of a shark's mouth and teeth are illustrated over a two-page spread. The illustrations were colorful and there were many interesting and fun facts about sharks in side notes and captions throughout the book, which I thought were very entertraining to read.

Purpose: The purpose of this book is for nonfiction/informational reasonings. This book can be read aloud to students in grades K - 3rd or 4th grade for students that are currently learning about sharks, animals, or the ocean. The book could then be places on the bookshelf for students to go back to read on their own and read the multiple sidenotes that are on almost every single page. The author's credentials are not explicitly stated in the book. This book stimulates interest in children wanting to read and learn more about specific breeds of sharks and, in the beginning, the book starts off by asking questions about sharks to interest and engage the readers. The illustrations in this book serve the purpose of extending and enhancing the text. For example, pictures of sharks are illustrated next to each other to give readers a more visual idea of different breeds of sharks and their relationship in size compared to one another. The illustrations are also defined/explained by labels and captions.

[Alexis Adelman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book honestly tells us a lot about sharks. It gives us safety tips, and facts on how they eat, breed, breath, live and more. They tell us how they don’t always attack people, and if they do, it is usually only if the people are where the sharks like to feed at, usually in the shallower water where we like to swim. The illustrations in this book are very very life like. They actually have many photos that are labeled, this is the exact size of the sharks mouth. The pages and illustrations are full of bright colors and life size images. Next to many of the illustration there is text that labels and describes what each thing is. For example, the teeth were each labeled with what type of tooth it was and what type of shark it belonged to. The same happened with what each illustration of a shark was, and the different type of sharks there are. The authors purpose was to tell us and inform us on what sharks are, and how they go about living there lives. There were many great facts and I actually really enjoyed reading this book to my group. It is definitely made for elementary aged children, and could be a lot of fun if a teacher incorporated it into a class lesson.

[Audrey Mathews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought the book all about sharks was a very educational book it taught me a lot about sharks, most of which I didn't already know. It greaten my interest in sharks and brightened my view on a sharks life it also showed just how important sharks are to our existence. It shows amazing illustrations of each shark the book talks about it even gets into facts about the ancient giant the Megalodon and the teeth. The book shows how to identify sharks by their teeth. This book also shows how we human beings have made a terrible impact on sharks every where by killing them for their fins, teeth, jaws, items such as lipstick, pills, and much more. In fact 90% of sharks population has decreased. This book shows the beauty of sharks and what we are doing which is brutally killing 100's of millions of sharks each year. This book also is a great way to spread the beauty and facts of sharks and is also a good way to show what we are doing to them.

[Kaylee Mercer · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is this book about you might ask? Well, its All About Sharks! There are many different types and species of sharks. This book describes what a shark looks like, what they eat, and how to stay safe if swimming in the ocean. Did you know that a shark can swim in only 2 ft of water?! This means that most sharks swim close to the shore to eat other fish. The book states that sharks attacks are not as common as they could be which is interesting. I really enjoyed learning about different types of sharks. This book is colorful and appealing! It could be used when discussing the Ocean/ animals that live there. I would recommend this book!

[Shanna Gonzalez · Rating 3 out of 5]

An introduction to an animal that children are often fascinated with, illustrated in Arnosky's wonderful style with lots of information about the characteristics, habits, and varieties of sharks. From a creationist perspective, this one is unfortunately marred with an explicit evolutionary reference saying sharks have swum in the oceans for millions of years, and they haven't changed much in all that time. A judicious parent with a sharpie can easily excise this comment, however, and the rest of the book is quite interesting and straightforwardly informative.

[Melynda Moore]

What: This book discusses the characteristics of different sharks including what they look like, what they eat, and how they have their babies. There are no actual photos in this book for students to see. This book also discusses the different families of sharks and what types of sharks belong to each family.
So What: Students must be able to compare ways that young resemble their parents.
Now What: Students will create a book of different animals and their young. There will also be a description of the size and how they are born (live birth or egg) along with a timeline.

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

chock full of shark facts...most intriguing part for my audience was the different kinds of shark teeth--although other characteristics are covered including their body types, habits and births. Lots of hammerhead pictures for those who may have little hammerhead fans.

[Amanda Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for children to read if they are interested in sharks or the ocean. I really liked how the author described characteristics of each type of shark. I think kids would love seeing what different types of shark teeth look like.

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[Molly Darr]

This is a great non-fiction book about sharks. All About Sharks would be a great help when discussing animals and ocean life in the classroom.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this quite a bit and thought the art was good. I still wished it was a little more comprehensive, but for the age group, very good.

[Morgan Groth]

This would be a good book to use when talking about sea creatures or different layers of the ocean since it lists the different sharks and what parts of the ocean they live in.

[wildct2003 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good basic overview of sharks.

[Nick Shaffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book for children who like nonfiction. Teaches a lot about sharks.