The Fly Guy series is turning to non-fiction in Fly Guy Presents Sharks. If fictional characters like Buzz and Fly Guy narrate a factual book on sharks is it still non-fiction? I’ll leave that to someone else to determine.
Buzz and Fly Guy take a trip to the aquarium. Buzz was excited to see the sharks but Fly Guy was scared. We meet many kinds of sharks, find out how they breathe underwater and learn that sharks have no bone, just cartilage. We look at lots of shark teeth, rough skin made of denticles and learn about shark senses underwater. Did you know that a shark can hear a fish’s muscles moving underwater? Or that two-thirds of a shark’s brain is used for smelling? Or that baby sharks are called pups?
The information in the book is presented as part live action and part scrapbook. Buzz is taking notes as he and Fly Guy walk around the exhibit. We get a microscopic look at various kinds of dentricles and a close up of a shark eye that can see in very murky water. The cartoon drawings of Buzz and Fly Guy are superimposed over photos of the sharks. The humor of the series characters is intact. This is a great book for kids who love Fly Guy and for kids who want to know more about sharks. And, by the way, Fly Guy is not scared of sharks at the end.
Scholastic has this book rated at a 3.o grade level (most of the other books in the series are in the 1.4 to 2.4 range).
According to Amazon, the publication date is May 1, 2013, so the libraries have no copies yet, but it is available from Scholastic, either at the Book Fair or until March 19th at Scholastic/bvusd.
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