Shark Wars

Shark Wars #1

by E.J. Altbacker

Shark Wars by Altbacker, EJ. Published by Razorbil,2011, Hardcover

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Middle Grade, Adventure, Animals, Childrens, Action

248 pages, Hardcover

First published June 14, 2011

About the author

EJ Altbacker is an Emmy nominated screenwriter whose credits include such television shows as Spooksville, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Ben 10, Spider-Man, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, Mucha Lucha and others. He holds an MFA in screenwriting from the American Film Institute and an undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame.

Handy Andy Saves the World is his first book since the six book Shark Wars series. He is currently working on his next book as well as writing on the Lego Nexo Knights and the upcoming Justice League Action shows (and another couple secret projects he can't talk about yet, which is killing him). EJ lives in Hermosa Beach, California, and enjoys biking and plodding (his word for jogging as he's pretty slow) by the shore.

Reviews

[Caleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

A message from my son:
Dear EJ,
I think you should make alot of these books. My favorite characters were Gray and Snork. I think people who gave it only a few stars are crazy. They don't know what kids like. It was an amazing book. I love the fights, and the ending.
Sincerely,
Caleb

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gray, a reef shark, having been banned from his shiver (clan) for disobeying the orders of his mother and his leader, finds a refuge of sorts in Goblin shiver. Little does he know, at first, that treachery and evil are lurking in this wayward shiver until it is almost too late. Only after realizing the mistakes that he has made will result in hopelessness, chaos, and death, does he reunite with his old friends of Coral Shiver and banish those evil-doers...as he hopes to reunite with his mother.

Shark Wars is full of adventure, fast-paced excitement, and battles...this is a kids' book that 3rd through 5th grade boys will love! I read the Goodreads ARC copy and although it is full of errors and a strange, shark language that I eventually realized were more errors...I'm confident the mistakes will be corrected by the release date. A story that subtlely sneaks in the message that standing by your friends and doing what is right always wins out in the end, and is always the best course of action.

Thank you to Goodreads, EJ Altbacker, Emily Gref, and The Penguin Group for this ARC.

[Sebastian · Rating 5 out of 5]

EJ, you wrote my favorite book!!Gray , Goblin,and Barkley are my favorite characters!!Also I love,love,love,LOVE sharks!!

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 10 year old son really enjoyed reading this book

[Jameson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I initially read this book as an advanced reader's copy that I picked out from a library, my prize for the summer reading program. At about 9 years old, I was immediately enthralled in the world of sharks and shivers. The book is a masterclass on worldbuilding within children's fiction, creating interesting characters and mixing the genres of science fiction, adventure, and fantasy to create a unique setting that captivates the minds of young boys. The reading level is probably around 6th grade, as I found on my latest of many rereads, but it remains an enjoyable light read even into my college years. If I had to critique, the plot occasionally feels rushed, but that comes with the target demographic. I'll be reading these to my future children.

[Adrienne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly? I hated this book. It's getting 2 stars only because my 7-year-old LOVED it. Unfortunately, he's not quite a strong enough reader just yet to have managed it on his own, so it was our bedtime story book for several weeks. I usually like kids books, but this one? Notsomuch. I get why it's popular with boys my son's age, but it has pretty much no redeeming qualities for my own demographic.

The things we do for our children...

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book I picked is the first book of the Shark Wars series. The book is about a shark named Gray who lives in the ocean. Gray is twelve years old and gray did something bad and got grounded for a week. Gray had a friend named Barkley . Gray is bigger than the other sharks. Gray had a fun adventure. When Gray got back to the reef the other sharks were playing tuna roll. I really liked this book because Gray did have a lot of new friends.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review was written by Tommy, age 8:
I really liked this book because it had a lot of action and plotting. There is also more than one villain. I like books that have more than one villain. It also has some fighting in it and I like that. I also like it because the main character is brave. I recommend this book.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

very cute kids book. Perfect for 3/4th grade. Great lessons about friendship and doing the right thing.

[Daniel B · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was amazing there was action,drama and a surprise ending (p.s took surprise ending from wowc final story) this book should be a movie, t.v series and toy.

[Anastasia Tuckness · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Realistic fiction” from shark’s point of view about growing up, friendship, bullies, controlling impulses. I found it quite tedious (in fact Alex finished it for me).

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted a cute read that looked like something my ten year old self would have adored and stumbled across this from my local library's Libby connection. The audiobook was a very quick five hours and the story was very cute. A young reef shark named Grey is growing fast along with his appetite. This leads himself and his best friend, Barkley, to getting wrapped into another clan of sharks with some devious plots. We meet a colorful cast of characters of all different shapes and sizes, uncover a hidden secret, and friendships are made stronger through harsh experiences.

I always loved animal books growing up and this is a nice addition to the genre. While I wouldn't hold it to as high of a standard as Silverwing or Watership Down, this is a fantastic stepping stool for even younger children. (Silverwing and Watership Down are more middle school level titles while Shark Wars is definitely elementary level). If you're a parent that wants to get your child into reading, especially if they're a shark fan, I highly recommend this!

[Adham Shehata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shark Wars is a very good book
Written by E.J. Altbacker,
It keeps the reader hooked
For eons sharks lived happily in the sea
Until war between shark kind happened
A treacherous came to be
Gray was one of these sharks
and his life was no longer a walk in the park
After he got out of his shiver
he began a new one with his other pals
and began a new group to avoid becoming dinner
Then there was a dangerous encounter with another gang
Gray and his friends were surrounded
and decided to hang
In a shiver named after the leader, Goblin
He knew how to lead
and he had never fallen.
There are many ways
you can assume this story to end,
although the real ending
Is very suspensing.

[Megan Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

The three stars on this review is really more of a review from my kids... I would have given it two stars at best, but I'm not the target audience for the book. My son picked this from the library because he loves sharks. And if that's your only criteria for this book, it'll be met because almost all of the characters are sharks. However, this book is hard to follow, the backstory/mythology of this world that the sharks live in is never explained (I like when books do more show and less tell, but this book did neither), and all of the names are very similar and difficult to keep straight. However, even though I thought that for all of these reasons my kids would lose interest they never did. So I guess we'll probably read the next one too... even though I don't want to.

[Eli · Rating 2 out of 5]

First off I did not finish the book. I was reading it aloud to my ten year old son and we quit. To be fair my son was torn about stopping and I think he might have continued if he was reading on his own but as a struggling reader he didn’t want to read it himself.

I read a lot of YA books and love many but the writing here is not great. I loved the premise but not the world building and the language modification of regular English words like “Shiver” instead of clan got tiresome and confusing.

Still I would recommend checking it out to its target audience, i.e. shark loving young boys.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is aimed at middle grade readers, but I enjoyed it, too. I listened to it on audio and it's well worth listening to.
Sharks are prehistoric, and these particular sharks follow a certain order, but they are struggling to keep their territories. Food is getting scarce due to climate change and other shivers of sharks are trying to take over.
Gray is a reef shark, so he has been told, but he isn't so sure about that. Then there is a war he gets pulled into because he disobeyed and got sent away. When he meets up with the wrong 'crowd' he doesn't realize until it is almost too late.
Great first story in the series.

[Christina Setikian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true marvel in the middle grade shark related underwater adventure books. This one left me begging for more, so much so I wrote an essay depicting the relation between this and a couple of Shakespeare's lesser known works such as "The Tempest" and "Timon of Athens". If you're interested in reading just LMK, I'm happy to forward you the essay! Anyhow, this book just sparks something deep within me, it left me with a new perspective on life as a whole. The story is rich with deep parallels to the Elizabethan Era, which just gets me going. The dichotomy between the characters is breathtaking, or maybe more eye opening... hmmm?! Definitely give this one a read!

[Jenni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this aloud to my 5 year old twins. They were super engaged the whole time, coming up with theories and anticipating what happens next. The book is well researched and creative and I was as interested as they were. The humor is appropriate as is the language. They enjoyed phrases like chop chop, greenie, and ka boom boom. It spurred their imaginations and they have since placed their stuffed animals in various shivers. We are all looking forward to the next book.

[Genevieve Plante · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know it was meant for kids but even tough I'm way past the target audience, I really enjoyed this book and currently reading the second one (and bought all the others wishing there's more to come). I love sharks, pick it up for my sharkfest/sharkweek read this summer and I got hooked. I love the characters, their interactions, how they describe the world around them. It's well written, the plot is great and it has so much action, a jawsome page turner.

[Victor Heitalahti · Rating 5 out of 5]

summery:
who:Gray
what:A war
when:at war
where:in the ocean
why:to kill all the enemys
opinion: I like this book saries because its about one of my faverite animals and how brutal the books are to. I also like that its a war of more species of sharks and whales.

I recommend this book for people who whad like a good ww shark.

[Carly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable. My only complaints would be that some of the terms/language was hard to follow and understand. And that it was obvious that the author and editors didn't do any research on ocean animals or sharks for that matter. Other than that I enjoyed the book and I plan to finish the rest of the books in the series.

[Alexey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young shark by the name of Gray could hold his self-control together and ended up out in the open ocean where he made new friends and enemies. The book’s rapid changes and events are what stuck out to me while reading.

[The Unabridged Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

According to my nine-year old: This book was great because Gray ended up being a megalodon. Most fiction books are just about great whites. I would absolutely like to read the next book in the series. The author left us hanging in this one!

[Rawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was very interesting and it had a lot of action. My favorite character was Grey and I like how when he got sent out of the reef his friend goes with him. It showed that they were really good friends.

[Lydia W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had the characters in this book not been sharks it would basically be a book about mobsters and gangs.
Lots of killing, back stabbing, and evil plotting. It's definitely a book that will keep you turning pages, but I'm definitely not crazy about the storyline being for children.

[Remington · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book in the series. It has action,friendship, and mystery. I like it because of the action.If you don't like death or blood I would not not read it. Some parts are hard to follow.

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthropomorphic adventure about some sharks in an average read for the younger reader.
Some good moments, but preachy in parts and nothing memorable.
The first in a series.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love It!

[Mark Hanson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would appeal to middle school boys interested in sharks.

[Maximilian Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book because I really like Battle Bugs and this book is really similar to it. I like Battle Bugs because in Battle Bugs it's bugs vs. reptiles.