Savage killers or endangered victims? This books tells readers the truth about the most feared creatures in the sea.

Reviews

Gr 2-4-Dorling Kindersley has become an expert at combining (and recombining) crisp, colorful shots to entice readers. These titles, on topics selected to capture the attention of the intended audience, are carefully laid out in a user-friendly format guaranteed to reassure neophyte readers. Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!, for children beginning to read on their own, has a chatty text that, while including such comfortable phrases as "Yikes!" and "That's a big turnoff!," does present some thought-provoking information on a variety of insects (though "smart" as applied to thorn bugs is questionable). Several info boxes and a page of "Bug Facts" provide extra data. If you already own Steve Parker's Insects (1997) and/or What's Inside: Insects (both DK, 1992; o.p.), you can still use this one. Shark Attack! purports to be for grades two and three but may prove a tad intimidating to the youngest in this group. The accurate text provides not only a lively history of several shark attacks, but also a look at scientific research, the wide variety of shark species, and the pressures on shark populations due to indiscriminate hunting and overfishing. It's for readers past Allan Fowler's The Best Way to See a Shark (Children's, 1995) and not yet ready for Mary Batten's Shark Attack Almanac (Random, 1997). All in all, colorful, welcome additions.-Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY