Neighborhood sharks / Katherine Roy.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
Winner of the John Burroughs Riverby Award for Young Readers

Up close with the ocean's most fearsome and famous predator and the scientists who study them-just twenty-six miles from the Golden Gate Bridge!

A few miles from San Francisco lives a population of the ocean's largest and most famous predators. Each fall, while the city's inhabitants dine on steaks, salads, and sandwiches, the great white sharks return to California's Farallon Islands to dine on their favorite meal: the seals that live on the island's rocky coasts. Massive, fast, and perfectly adapted to hunting after 11 million years of evolution, the great whites are among the planet's most fearsome, fascinating, and least understood animals.

In the fall of 2012, Katherine Roy visited the Farallons with the scientists who study the islands' shark population. She witnessed seal attacks, observed sharks being tagged in the wild, and got an up close look at the dramatic Farallons-a wildlife refuge that is strictly off-limits to all but the scientists who work there. Neighborhood Sharks is an intimate portrait of the life cycle, biology, and habitat of the great white shark, based on the latest research and an up-close visit with these amazing animals.

This title has Common Core connections.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Drama and intrigue infuse Roy's study of migrating great white sharks. Each year, the sharks return to San Francisco: "While their 800,000 human neighbors dine on steak, salad, and sandwiches, the white sharks hunt for their favorite meal." With violence and wild beauty, one of Roy's sharks attacks a local elephant seal, sending forth a bubbling gush of blood. Elsewhere, Roy playfully compares the characteristics of a shark's body to those of a jet plane, and cutaway images display a shark's internal anatomy. Roy's reverence for her subject is evident in her majestic underwater scenes, while light humor and rich content round out a standout resource for shark enthusiasts. Ages 7-11. Agent: Stephen Barr, Writers House. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal Review

Gr 2-4-In preparation for this well-researched book on great white sharks, Roy joined scientists in the Farallon Islands to study the animals near San Francisco. Though shark lovers of all ages will enjoy poring over the intense, vivid images, there's a lot of information that older students will particularly appreciate. Readers will learn about many aspects of great whites-their anatomy, how they hunt, and their place in the ecosystem, as well as how scientists study them. The action-packed illustrations, rendered in watercolor and pencil with some digital work, are both accurate and captivating. Pair this one with Gail Gibbons's Sharks (Holiday House, 1992) or Seymour Simon's Incredible Sharks (Chronicle, 2003). Additional information in the form of films, books, and online resources are appended, including a link to a live webcam of the Farallon Islands. An excellent introduction.-Martha Rico, El Paso ISD, TX (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

This engaging narrative describes the annual white shark migration to San Francisco's Farallon Islands, where these skilled predators come to gorge on the abundant seal and sea lion population. Detailed descriptions and watercolor illustrations graphically portray the physical and geographic elements that come into alignment to support this top-down food-chain cycle. The author effectively mixes extensive research and field experience to explain how sharks hunt their prey, while scientists follow the sharks, seeking opportunities to take blood and tissue samples and to implant electronic-tracking tags. Scientific facts and concepts mesh smoothly with sequential action scenes, making the content accessible and logical. It is difficult to talk about sharks and their feeding habits without a bit of gore, and the illustrations, though not overly sensational, do not disappoint. Numerous shark-themed informational books have been published in recent years, but this unique treatment deserves a spot on those crowded shelves. Researchers, browsers, and teachers will welcome this authoritative work on interdependent ecosystems, arecurring theme in national science standards.--McBroom, Kathleen Copyright 2014 Booklist

Horn Book Review

Look closely at the cover of this impressive account of great white sharks off the Northern California coast: that bright red in the illustration is blood trailing from a chunk of freshly killed immature elephant seal--and a signal that Roy's book will fully examine the sometimes chilling, always fascinating details of what makes this animal a predator. The dramatic main narrative describes a shark swimming and hunting, while well-integrated information-rich sections tell more about the biology and ecology of these sharks and about the scientists who study their role in the Farallon Island ecosystem. The explanations are thorough, even, and informative and benefit from excellent analogies (in both text and illustration) to elucidate such topics as sharks' streamlined bodies and visual acuity. Roy's illustrations masterfully employ color and perspective: blood-reds flow through the blues and grays of the sometimes calm, sometimes roiling ocean. Don't skip the endnotes, which include behind-the-scenes information on Roy and the research she conducted for the book. danielle j. ford (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Every fall, great white sharks return to feed on the seals and sea lions that migrate to the Farallon Islands just off the San Francisco coast, providing an opportunity for scientific study. Combining informative text with expressive paintings, done in ink, pencil, watercolor and gouache, Roy explains how these apex predators function. The endpapers set the stage, looking out toward the distant islands through the Golden Gate Bridge in front and back at the California shoreline from high over the islands at the end. In an early series of stunning paintings, the shark's meal is revealed in three spreads before the wordless fourth shows the strike; the water swirls, and the seal is captured in the shark's toothy mouth. Bloody water surrounds the shark in the next picture. Subsequent pages explain why the seal is a perfect meal and highlight the shark's streamlined body, warmed blood, superior vision, endless teeth, and projectile jaws that contribute to its success as a hunter. For this debut picture book, the author joined researchers who tag and follow these sharks, and she's distilled their findings in a way that's sure to attract young readers. The backmatter provides further information, sources and suggested reading. Full of the eww factor, up-to-date facts and kid appeal, this splendid, gory introduction is not for the faint of heart! (Informational picture book. 7-10) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.