Shark and Lobster's Amazing Undersea Adventure - Softcover

Viviane Schwarz is the author of the highly acclaimed picture book The Adventures of a Nose. She grew up in Germany, but now lives in London. Joel Stewart has illustrated many celebrated children's books including The Adventures of a Nose, Jabberwocky and Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by Naomi Lewis. He lives in Cornwall.

PreS-Gr. 2. The team behind The Adventures of a Nose (2006) offers a less surreal picture book, this one featuring goofy sea creatures that would be right at home in a Spongebob Squarepants cartoon, as well as a message about calming irrational anxieties. Big, strong Shark has a phobia of tigers, and his worries spread to his buddy, Lobster, and to other crustacean neighbors (whose jointed bodies are less appealingly anthropomorphized than that of expressive Shark). Everyone pitches in to build a fortress, beefing up security by retrieving a "huge big monster from the deep sea." Having mustered the courage to face the flesh-and-blood monster, Shark and Lobster realize the absurdity of their earlier fears. Hand-inked, digitally colored panels spin out the story at just the right pace, and the book's thick matte pages open vertically, yielding tall spreads that reinforce the impression of descending through watery depths. The unfamiliar bottom-to-top page turns may tempt some adults to pass over this for group sharing, but the positive reactions from kids should justify giving it a try. Jennifer Mattson
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