Keith Ellenbogen

A great text about great white sharks and their comeback from near extinction. The author tells the story of the increased population of great white sharks off the New England coast and the scientists who are studying the great white sharks. The author truly shows how passionate the scientists are about their work and how important sharks are to marine ecosystems. The narrative content is carefully organized in chronological order of the scientists' daily work over a period of about a year. The author takes a conversational tone to the daily story and accompanies the scientists in the field---watching, observing and interviewing them about their work. The text includes amazing photos that help tell the story. This book includes maps of Chatham, Mass., Monomoy Island and Cape Cod Bay as well as maps of great white shark locations. The author includes a selected bibliography, web resources, and acknowledgements. I liked the humorous look the author takes about shark numbers and statistics. For example, the chance of a person being killed by a shark is 1 in 37 million and the chance of a person dying from the flu is 1 in 63. The facts were interesting and written to help people understand that sharks are not interested in eating people but they do have an important place in marine ecosystems. As humans we have a tendency to be afraid of sharks and want to kill them all. The author helps the reader understand what amazing creatures great white sharks are. The text also gives a first hand look at the daily scientific investigations of a real life scientist in the field. The author even includes information about a cell phone app that can be used to track great white sharks that have been tagged by the scientists. I have been to Chatham and Monomoy Island to see the grey seals. It is a beautiful place and the water is amazing. It was inspirational to read about the come back of a species like the great white sharks.… (meer)

This book is organized by a timeline. It begins on Tuesday, July 8th and ends on Tuesday, January 6th.
*SHARK ATTACK!*
Greg Skomal is a great white shark biologist. This book follows his mission to find the shark as well as to teach us that these are beautiful creatures who aren't looking for just to kill, like in the "Jaws" movies. The more information that they know about the creatures, the more they can protect humans from ever being killed by one by accident. "The goal is to determine who's out there and whether we've seen them before. The more we know about individuals, the better. We need to spend time getting the demographics of the population, such as male or female, size, and age," explains Greg Skomal. So Greg and his team went off to find great white sharks! Within his team included Sy, the Author, and Keith, the photographer. They went along on this journey in order to write this book.

This book includes many GREAT facts about the GREAT white shark!
-A single seal could satisfy a great white's appetite for more than a week.
-Great whites cruise close to tourist beaches because they want to eat the seals, NOT the people.
-Most of the few people who get bitten by great whites have survived. This is because when the shark discovers its mistake, that it's bitten a human and not a seal, it almost always spits out the person. Yuck!
-A diagram explaining what a shark is and the body parts.
-Fun Fact: Sharks have a distinctive pattern, such as a human's fingerprint.

The book shows us up close to what real sharks look like as well as the team working. These photographs are proof of the things that happen, which I like since it isn't just another photo from the internet. These photographs are unique and make the reader get the "WOW EFFECT". It also includes many maps of where sharks tend to swim and stay around. The back of the book includes five web resources, acknowledgments, and a bibliography. It also includes two pages of safety facts about sharks including what to do and not to do.

All of the 'scientists in the field' books are wonderful and make great sources!… (meer)