SHARKS: The Super Fish

Young readers will absorb with pleasure the solid information offered in this large, handsome volume. Sattler writes with grace and clarity, her tone calm but never dry, her sentences short, her topics logically connected. She drifts past shark anatomy and life-cycle, pausing to comment on unusual features such as the lateral lines or the ""ampullae of Lorenzini"" (small organs exquisitely sensitive to electric current), remarking at greater length on behavioral norms and extremes, and lingering longest over a ""glossary"" of sharks that takes up two-thirds of the book. The index is brief but adequate; the bibliography ranges widely. The spacious margins, and occasional whole spreads, are taken over by skillfully done pencil illustrations, often dramatic, always carefully detailed. Not as colorful as McGowen's Album of Sharks, but describes many more species. The author urges readers to regard these animals with respect and interest, rather than the usual delicious fear.