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Clark The Shark (2013)

by Bruce Hale(Favorite Author)

3.58 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0062192264 (ISBN13: 9780062192264)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

HarperCollins

review 1: Clark the Shark follows a young shark who is entirely too excited about life. Because he is so excited, he starts to alienate his friends and becomes sad until his teacher suggests that he should "stay cool" and that "there is a time and place for everything". Then Clark comes up with a plan to stay cool by coming up with rhymes in his head to control himself. The story is ultimately pretty silly and not very engaging. Hale partially makes up for the weak narrative though through clever rhymes and dialogue which is incredibly fun to read aloud.What truly saves the book, however, are Guy Francis's illustrations. The pictures are colorful and detailed, and create a fun atmosphere. Francis' pictures mix a school setting and undersea creatures in a very creative way. Clark's e... morexpressions throughout the pictures are hilarious and engaging. The illustrations are what make the book stand out and be truly a treat to read. Hale's writing is pretty weak, however. The story is rather silly and it was difficult for me as a reader to sympathize with the main character because he was just so annoying. Some of the rhymes are fun, but at other times they seem very forced. The characters are not very interesting, and there is no real antagonist of the story. This book falls victim to the picture book stereotype where everyone is happy and friends and nothing ever goes wrong. Which makes for a very boring story. Thank god for the wonderful illustrations or else this would have been a pretty awful book.
review 2: This story is about a shark who must learn how to control himself in order to not be a nuisance at his school. After his teacher, Mrs. Inkydink tells Clark that he has to work on "staying cool" Clark struggles controlling himself until he discovers that he can use rhymes to remind himself what is okay and what is not okay. This story would be great for a teacher to use as a way to help teach students the value of self control and how to use rhymes to help them remember things. The illustrations in the book take up most of the space while the words were in an easy to read font. This book would be appropriate for use in an elementary classroom and will be enjoyable and fun for young children. less

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