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Hungry, Hungry Sharks
Did you know that there were sharks on earth even before dinosaurs? For more than twenty years, Hungry, Hungry Sharks! has been a staple nonfiction title in the Step into Reading line. Nothing is more exciting than sharks, and this title is packed with amazing facts about these fearsome underseas predators. And now it’s even more exciting, with dynamic new cover art to attract a whole new generation of early readers.
48 pages, Library Binding
First published April 1, 1986
13 people are currently reading
345 people want to read
About the author
Joanna Cole
489 books205 followersJoanna Cole, who also wrote under the pseudonym B. J. Barnet, was an author of children’s books who teaches science.
She is most famous as the author of The Magic School Bus series of children's books. Joanna Cole wrote over 250 books ranging from her first book Cockroach to her famous series Magic School Bus.
Cole was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby East Orange. She loved science as a child, and had a teacher she says was a little like Ms. Frizzle. She attended the University of Massachusetts and Indiana University before graduating from the City College of New York with a B.A. in psychology. After some graduate education courses, she spent a year as a librarian in a Brooklyn elementary school. Cole subsequently became a letters correspondent at Newsweek, and then a senior editor for Doubleday Books for Young Readers.
She is most famous as the author of The Magic School Bus series of children's books. Joanna Cole wrote over 250 books ranging from her first book Cockroach to her famous series Magic School Bus.
Cole was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby East Orange. She loved science as a child, and had a teacher she says was a little like Ms. Frizzle. She attended the University of Massachusetts and Indiana University before graduating from the City College of New York with a B.A. in psychology. After some graduate education courses, she spent a year as a librarian in a Brooklyn elementary school. Cole subsequently became a letters correspondent at Newsweek, and then a senior editor for Doubleday Books for Young Readers.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
July 17, 2021
SHARK SHARK SHARK!
if you know me and the breadth of my reading tastes, you may well ask yourself “is this children’s book or monsterporn?”
but lemme clear it up for you - this is a children’s book, so get outta here, sickos!
it is only a very tiny little book, but it does have some knowledge to drop, about how you should be glad that your mommy is not a shark:
The pup of the great white shark is almost the size of a man. As soon as they are born the pups go their own way. It is not safe to stay near a hungry mother.
and why sharks should not eat puffer fish
and how dolphins are the bullies of the ocean and it’s about time we stop thinking of them as pals worthy of airbrushing onto things because they are horrible beasts
it almost reads like poetry
because the lines
are broken up
like this
and these days
that’s all you need to do
to call yourself
poet
that page is extra fun because it looks like this little shark is barfing that whale into existence
which is not how whales are made, but it SHOULD be.
there’s not much to this book, but i gotta squeeze in as many shark books as i can during SHARK WEEK RARRRR, so there you have it. a shark book of fewer than fifty pages that still somehow manages to have a few pages that should have been edited away. for example, this:
Scientists want to study sharks. But it is hard to study them at sea. And it is hard to keep big sharks alive in a tank. Once scientists caught a great white shark. They put it in a tank with other fish. But the shark did not eat. And it kept bumping into the sides of the tank. After a few days the shark began to die. So the scientists took the shark back to sea. They set it free.
that’s like a greg story right there, man - leaves you speechless but for all the wrong reasons.
anyway, sharks.
they live underwater and are picked on by dolphins.
life is unfair.
come to my blog!!
if you know me and the breadth of my reading tastes, you may well ask yourself “is this children’s book or monsterporn?”
but lemme clear it up for you - this is a children’s book, so get outta here, sickos!
it is only a very tiny little book, but it does have some knowledge to drop, about how you should be glad that your mommy is not a shark:
The pup of the great white shark is almost the size of a man. As soon as they are born the pups go their own way. It is not safe to stay near a hungry mother.
and why sharks should not eat puffer fish
and how dolphins are the bullies of the ocean and it’s about time we stop thinking of them as pals worthy of airbrushing onto things because they are horrible beasts
it almost reads like poetry
because the lines
are broken up
like this
and these days
that’s all you need to do
to call yourself
poet
that page is extra fun because it looks like this little shark is barfing that whale into existence
which is not how whales are made, but it SHOULD be.
there’s not much to this book, but i gotta squeeze in as many shark books as i can during SHARK WEEK RARRRR, so there you have it. a shark book of fewer than fifty pages that still somehow manages to have a few pages that should have been edited away. for example, this:
Scientists want to study sharks. But it is hard to study them at sea. And it is hard to keep big sharks alive in a tank. Once scientists caught a great white shark. They put it in a tank with other fish. But the shark did not eat. And it kept bumping into the sides of the tank. After a few days the shark began to die. So the scientists took the shark back to sea. They set it free.
that’s like a greg story right there, man - leaves you speechless but for all the wrong reasons.
anyway, sharks.
they live underwater and are picked on by dolphins.
life is unfair.
come to my blog!!
October 1, 2022
I TOLD YOU MOM THIS WASNT JUST A PHASE!!!!!
#sharkgirl 😍🦈
#sharkgirl 😍🦈
July 28, 2017
You never know how a book on sharks will go over with 7 year-olds, but my group weren't fazed and took up the focus skill of the lesson--the nonfiction text feature, comparison--easily. What made Hungry, Hungry Sharks informational text a great fit for the lesson was the illustrations, especially the two that showed the whale shark on top of a bus and the dwarf shark in the palm of a hand. The kids drew their own comparisons, and even though I'm biased, they were very well done.
March 21, 2011
Akkor is ha gyerekeknek volt sokat tanultam belole.
Pl.A feher capa a legnagyobb capa a balna-capan kivul.
Hogy,hogy csinaljak a tudosokkifogni a capat es hova viszik ,hogy megnezhessek.
Van egy olyan kicsi capa mint a kizunk,es meg nagyon sok dolgot.
Pl.A feher capa a legnagyobb capa a balna-capan kivul.
Hogy,hogy csinaljak a tudosokkifogni a capat es hova viszik ,hogy megnezhessek.
Van egy olyan kicsi capa mint a kizunk,es meg nagyon sok dolgot.
July 8, 2015
Fine, but I'm too big for it.
September 26, 2019
I want to start off by saying this book was written in 1986 and needs to be updated with its facts. In the book, it said "sharks eat people", but that is not true. It is a myth that has been debunked years ago. Sure, the shark may nab your arm off or your leg or whatnot, but it doesn't mean they want to eat you or go out of their way to eat humans. Sharks figure out what is food by tasting it which is why they bite humans sometimes. Shark attacks are not even that common as this book might make you think. Overall I liked the illustrations and the many facts about different kinds of sharks, although after reading that sharks eat people in this book I am a bit skeptical about the other facts in this book so I would not recommend reading this book or trust it as a reliable source of shark facts. Get a more updated book to read about sharks.
EDIT: Now I do see that there's a 2009 version out there and as I have not read that one, I don't know if it still says sharks eat people, but I hope not as that's not fact.
EDIT: Now I do see that there's a 2009 version out there and as I have not read that one, I don't know if it still says sharks eat people, but I hope not as that's not fact.
March 21, 2018
I like this book because it had love for the animals, when the scientist caught a great wight shark the put thee shark in a tank for the shark to survive, but when the shark was starting die the scientist let the shark carefully in its habitat. I also enjoyed this book because of the other facts and details.
October 8, 2018
Loved this informative book! My son, who is crazy about sharks, loved the photos, details and easy to read informational facts about sharks. However, he was saddened it wasn't longer! ;) Bright colors, concise tidbits about many different types of sharks and their habits as well as nice illustrations kept both of us interested.
March 3, 2018
I would have rated this higher if they would have left off the beginning about dinosaurs and evolution. Such propaganda. The rest of the book that was actually about sharks was pretty well done for a fact book.
April 3, 2018
Awesome book💲
August 5, 2018
I'm going to give this 4 stars not for the quality of writing but for the educational value. You can learn a bit about sharks in this short book.
September 18, 2018
Informational -- The book is a little outdated (published in 1986), but there are some fascinating facts about sharks that I'm sure kids would love.
Read
August 26, 2019Oscar's first book he brought home from the school library.
October 22, 2019
Informative with many interesting facts.
May 9, 2021
What a great book
June 30, 2021
I read this book easily a hundred times as a child. I loved the Jaws movies and consumed everything I could about sharks. It's really informative and easy to understand.
August 13, 2021
"Sharks sink if they stop swimming."
6 and I co-read.
6 and I co-read.
January 14, 2023
If this had just one lift the flap, it would've been 5 stars.
Read
September 25, 2023A hungry shark and what he eats and different animals eat too. Use this for kids wanted to learn about sharks
January 15, 2024
I liked it. It was kinda vague in its fun facts about sharks, but it's definitely a book for practicing how to read more than it is about shark facts. Still a fun one.
August 29, 2024
Am I an idiot cause I learned way too much from a shark book intended for 7 year olds.
November 26, 2024
An interesting book that teaches children all about sharks!
April 11, 2025
Did not capture our three year old's attention. Keeping for when he is older.
May 28, 2008
With Hungry, Hungry Sharks and The Magic School Bus: The Great Shark Escape, both by Joanna Cole, I feel like I'll be reviewing the same book twice. Hungry, Hungry Sharks! written first is a straight forward introductory science book about sharks.
This book is part of the "Step into Reading" series and is aimed at first grade readers. The book covers the different types of sharks, their habitats, their diet, reproduction and other interesting facts.
The section on the nurse shark is especially interesting, so much so that it appears verbatim as a sidebar in the The Magic School Bus
This book is part of the "Step into Reading" series and is aimed at first grade readers. The book covers the different types of sharks, their habitats, their diet, reproduction and other interesting facts.
The section on the nurse shark is especially interesting, so much so that it appears verbatim as a sidebar in the The Magic School Bus
January 21, 2016
This is a very nice Science book "without being in your face Science book". It teaches about many, many different types of sharks and their temperaments. Where they live, what they eat. How big they grow to be. My 4 year old granddaughter and my special needs teen age son both enjoyed listened to me read this to them.
The front cover says it's a step 2 grades 1-3 book but the cover that is shown here on GoodReads says it's a level 3 book. Either way it's a very nice book to explain about sharks. Not scary but nicely written with truth facts.
The front cover says it's a step 2 grades 1-3 book but the cover that is shown here on GoodReads says it's a level 3 book. Either way it's a very nice book to explain about sharks. Not scary but nicely written with truth facts.
June 5, 2008
One of the boys (2nd grade) just got done reading this book. He read 3 to 6 pages a day. It was appropriate for a beginning reader without being choppy or dumbed down. It really held our attention and we learned a ton of things we didn't know before, and we've read a lot about sharks.
I'll be adding this to our science reading list as well. All around great book.
I'll be adding this to our science reading list as well. All around great book.
May 23, 2020
This book is awesome. I was reading it to my infant niece and couldn't stop laughing at the death on every page: there's a dead whale, a cannibalistic feeding frenzy, some baby sharks fleeing their own ravenous mother, a pufferfish asphyxiation, a murderous dolphin gang, and the terrifyingly simple line, "Do sharks eat people? Yes, they do." Sharks rule.
April 11, 2009
Text provides basic information on shark habitat, feeding habits, and community. Writing style and vocabulary make this a good choice for an newly independent reader. Illustrations are helpful in showing the features and size of various sharks.
Read
June 12, 2009My five year old loves this book. It's all about sharks: how many kinds of sharks there are in the world, the brain size of sharks, how some momma sharks will eat their young if the young don't get away from momma shark. This book would be classified as a "specialized," book.
February 22, 2010
This is a simple and straightforward book about sharks, with some interesting facts and a narrative that is good for beginning readers. There are a lot of illustrations and some funny parts that are perfect for children in grades 1-3. Our girls enjoyed this story.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews