Never Take a Shark to the Dentist

Title: Never Take a Shark to the Dentist (and other things not to do)

Author: Judy Barrett

Illustrator: John Nickle

Picture book for ages (approximately) 5 and up

Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Summary:

This book is a list of things one should not do with certain animals, such as sit next to a porcupine on the subway.

Opinion:

Although this book is cute and filled with imagination and creativity, I’m not sure I would consider it great quality. Don’t misunderstand, I like this book, but as far as deep quality literature goes, I’m just not sure this qualifies. It does have several good literary elements, such as place, the illustrations show vividly each place, getting smaller or larger as the animal in question requires. There is a mood that goes with each illustration and animal as well, but it’s never a strong mood. There is absolutely no plot. This book is just a list, nothing more. There is no rhyme or reason to which animals were picked or why some weren’t.

The illustrations in this book are quite funny and they do tend to capture the moment well. They are entertaining and often show things not described in the words or text. Without the illustrations this book would not be the same, boring even.

I would use this book in my classroom, but probably just on my library shelf. There is no reason to keep it out of my classroom, yet I see no reason to run out and get it either. It’s a cute, funny read, but that’s about it. There isn’t anything super special or important related in this book that I would specifically pull it out for a lesson or study.