Neighborhood Sharks

By: Katherine Roy

          I have always been simultaneously fascinated by and terrified of sharks, so I decided that an informational book on Great White Sharks would be an interesting fit for me.  Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California's Farallon Islands is an informational picturebook that received a Robert F. Sibert Honor.  This book is framed with the narrative story a great white shark trying to have a meal of seal, while the middle of the book is filed with more informational chunks of text detailing the great sensory strengths of great whites when hunting.  

          Katherine Roy studied many great white sharks in the Farallon Islands prime hunting location to learn about their patterns of life.  As detailed in the book, the Farallon Islands shark hotspot is about 30 miles away from the Golden Great Bridge, as depicted by an absolutely stunning front end page that shows Roy's mastery of painting and artistic abilities.  Within her paintings, Roy also plays with motion and perspective by changing the focus of each illustration to create a sense of drama.  For example, in the beginning narrative when the shark is starting to hunt, the illustrations show clam waters and peaceful scenes until the shark attacks the seal suddenly by jumping out of the water with teeth barred.  This sudden change in perspective and motion send the reader into shock at the unexpected silent attack of the the shark.

          While much of the book details the shark's killer body build, warm blood, high-definition vision, sharp and numerous teeth, and projectile jaw, the text still draws upon the idea of sharks being susceptible to humans.  Roy states that "white sharks have circled the oceans for 11 million years- 10.8 million years longer than people have walked on the earth … can they survive another 200,000 years of humans?"  By turning around the common perspective of sharks as evil and terrifying enemies of people, Roy points out that humans often cause significant harm to sharks.  She then uses this change in perspective to draw upon reader sympathy and to serve as a call to action and information.

           Roy inserts a detailed author's note, a discussion of what she choose not to include great detail of (ex: shark sense of smell), and an bibliography that she continues to add to on her website.  I really enjoyed this book, because I believe that the brief narrative aspects of the shark's hunt for its seal connected beautifully with the illustrations to create an interesting, cohesive whole.  Additionally, all of the information seems accurate, and was presented with great (but not overwhelming) detail.  I would recommend this book for elementary schoolers and any students that are interested in ocean life, and sharks specifically.  There is a lot of information in this book, including Roy's other suggestions for shark books, which could be implemented in the classroom through various themed activities or classroom backpack activities.

For more information on great white sharks: http://ocean.si.edu/great-white-shark