Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Shark Vs. Train


Shark Vs. Train. Chris Barton. Illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld. 2010. April 2010. Little, Brown. 40 pages.

Two boys are playing together. One has a toy shark. One has a toy train. Both boys are competitive. Both boys are spirited and imaginative. In scenario after scenario after scenario, the two battle it out for supremacy. Trains do better at giving rides at carnivals. But do horribly at diving off the high dive. I liked that it (eventually) showed the two had some things in common. There were situations where neither did better, neither won. Both made too much noise at the library. Both failed at performing in a piano recital. Shark Vs. Train is unique and very silly.

It's not really my type of book. (I'm not the target audience for the book.) But I can appreciate the humor. I can see why kids would like this one. Why it would be appealing...



© Becky Laney of Young Readers

2 comments:

Sam and Boo Book Reviews said...

I was heartily amused by this one, though Boo is still too young to appreciate it. We'll likely try it again in a year or two.

Brimful Curiosities said...

Both my kids really like this book and it gets a lot of laughs. Even though my toddler doesn't always understand the humor, he really loves the illustrations.