A Sea Full of Sharks

Author/illustrator team and husband-and-wife Betsy and Giulio Maestro explore the world of sharks in this engaging work of natural history for the picture book set. The many different kinds of shark—350 kinds, divided into 30 large families—are covered, as are the diverse ranges different sharks inhabit, from cold to warm waters. Basic shark biology—the fact that they have a cartilage frame, their many sensitive organs devoted to perceiving the environment around them, the fact that they can never stop swimming—is also explored. The book closes with an argument for treating these creatures with respect, and a brief author's note giving more information...

A Sea Full of Sharks is the twelfth book I have read from Betsy Maestro, show more and the thirteenth from Giulio Maestro. I found it informative, and appreciated both the beautiful watercolor artwork, and the text. Given the subject matter, I appreciated Betsy Maestro's tone, as her narrative begins by acknowledging that sharks are awesome creatures, stating that "when something is awesome, you feel respect, fear and wonder all the same time." Maestro is careful to emphasize throughout the book that these creatures, although feared, are not terribly harmful to humans in great numbers, which is an important fact to bear in mind. My only note of caution is that this one was published in 1990, so some of the information might be outdated. Maestro notes that there are around 350 kinds of shark, whereas the more recent 2003 title from Nicola Davies and James Croft, Surprising Sharks lists that number at close to 500. Interestingly, Jim Arnosky's All About Sharks, also published in 2003, gives the number 250. I'm not sure which is correct, although the Shark Research Institute lists the number at 400+. The rest of the information presented here appears to be accurate, so I'd still recommend this one as a basic introduction to sharks for children, with the proviso that teachers or parents supplement the information regarding the number of kinds of shark. show less

this book is about all the different types of sharks. The make up of the body, and how we still do not know everything about sharks. It explains how some sharks are more aggressive than other sharks, and how some are much larger than others. It has a map of where most types of sharks are located in the sea. It compares the size of a shark to the size of a human.