Shark Super Powers – at a glance
The School Reading Lists’ five word review: Bright, fun, detailed and engaging.
Children’s book title: Shark Super Powers.
Children’s author: Jillian Morris and Duncan Brake.
Genre: Children’s nonfiction.
Illustrated by: Steve May.
Published by: Uclan Publishing
ISBN: 9781912979165
Recommended for children aged: 7-11.
First published: Paperback June 2020.
This children’s book is ideal for: home-learning projects, literacy in years 3&4, and KS2 libraries.
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Our review:
Shark Super Powers is a brightly illustrated and fun nonfiction text that is ideally suited to topic work and literacy lessons in years 3&4. Each double-page spread presents a different shark using photographs, graphics, fact boxes, and two cartoon narrators that will appeal to reluctant readers.
Well-known sharks such as the great white shark, the tiger shark, and the hammerhead are joined by the lesser-known and exotic-sounding goblin, cookie-cutter, and pelagic thresher sharks.
The clear graphics by Steve May and the consistent format is perfect for engaging children who are interested in accumulating facts, figures, and scientific knowledge.
The text is concise, clear, and fun. Shining through is Jillian Morris’ and Duncan Brake’s passion for marine biology. Their comic book characters whispering splashes of marine biology experience and conservation detail are a great touch.
Also, TV naturalist Steve Backshall’s autobiographical introduction, recounting his first encounter with a shark at the age of 11, will resonate with young readers.
Using Shark Super Powers in the classroom
- It’s perfect for Years 3&4.
- The content and detail make this book ideal for a home learning project.
- It’s a good reference book for the KS2 school library.
- The ‘superpowers’, ‘fast facts’, and speech bubbles from divers make the text accessible and appealing. The consistent layout is one KS2 pupils will be able to use as a writing frame to help scaffold their non-fiction literacy work.
- For literacy lessons – The addition of an introduction, index, author biographies, and consistent layout make this an ideal resource for KS2 pupils looking at the features of non-fiction texts.
- For topic work – the blend of maths facts and figures, (there’s plenty enough for handling data tasks, tables, charts or, even or top trumps style presentations) science detail – including teeth, food chain information – geographical habitat information, and classroom display and art lesson friendly cartoon illustrations make this a good choice for cross-curricular teaching.
Our verdict
The well-designed format lends itself to reluctant readers and cross-curricular teaching. It offers much more to the classroom than just a book for children fascinated by sharks and is ideally suited to literacy lessons and topic work in years 3&4, home-learning projects, and as a reference text in a KS2 library.
Many thanks to UCLanpublishing for the review copy.
If you like this book you might also like Shark In The Park by Nick Sharratt, Shark Lady: The Daring Tale of How Eugenie Clark Dove Into History by Jess Keating, Finn the Fortunate Tiger Shark and His Fantastic Friends by Georgina Stevens, Encyclopedia Prehistorica Sharks and Other Sea Monsters by Matthew Reinhart, and Sam Wu is NOT Afraid of Sharks! by Katie and Keven Tsang,
Why not have a look at our list of kid’s magazines and newspapers or our collection of topic books for KS1 and KS2?
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