Great White Shark

Gr 1–3—Simply written introductions. Short blocks of widely spaced, large-print text are set on color-photo spreads showing the sharks in their natural habitats. Each title briefly describes some outstanding characteristics, and the subject's basic shape and key body parts, labeled in the photographs. Also outlined are hunting and feeding techniques, diet, and average number and size of the young. Most of the photographs are of average quality; however, several in Hammerhead are indistinct (e.g., one head shot refers to the eyes in the text but they are not discernible). While the brief texts are lucid, they omit some important information. For instance, Great White depicts a shark with its mouth wide open and asks, "How many teeth can you see?" then fails to give the actual average number. Hammerhead states that the fish "knows when animals are near, even when it can't see them," but doesn't explain how. Deborah Nuzzolo's Hammerhead Shark (Capstone, 2008) covers the same basic information and has sharper photography; Sandra Markle's beautifully photographed Sharks: Biggest! Littlest! (Boyds Mills, 2008), a thorough general introduction, includes the aforementioned species along with the data omitted from these books (the average number of the great white's teeth and an explanation of the hammerhead's special sensors that detect prey's electrical charges).—Karey Wehner, formerly at San Francisco Public Library