Surrounded By Sharks by Michael Northrop
My rating: 3/5 cats
HOW MUCH CAN ONE PERSON LOVE SHARK WEEK??
3.5 stars cats.
this book is pretty fun. it’s about a 13-year-old booknerd named davey who is on vacation with his parents on a tiny island in the florida keys. he wakes up very early on their first morning, and disgusted by the loud snoring from his father and younger brother, and the stinky results of his brother’s burrito the day before, he grabs his book and glasses, and heads out to explore the island without leaving a note or waking anyone.
he finds a palm tree to read under, but is soon dismayed when a family of English tourists encroach on his spot.
Davey stood up and brushed the sand from his butt. He was just going to have to move if there were going to be English people running all over the place. It was distracting.
he leaves and finds himself a small, secluded mini-beach – a perfectly peaceful place to read, and to observe the ocean, so different from the lakes back home in ohio.
Davey was surprised by how warm the water was. He was standing at the very edge of the breaking waves, up to his ankles. He’d kicked off his sneakers and walked right past the NO SW MM NG sign, which was fine because he wasn’t sw mm ng. He still had his glasses on, still had the book in his hand. He was just testing out the water for later.
later comes pretty soon, and after getting distracted from reading by the novelty of the gently lapping waves, he stashes his glasses and other stuff under a bush, and decides to go back into the ocean, just waist-high, just enough to enjoy the warmth of the water, and the playful waves.
suddenly, he finds himself being pulled further and further away from land, without his glasses, becoming increasingly tired as he tries to fight the tide. he begins to swim towards a fuzzy shape he takes for an island, but when he finally reaches it, it turns out to be a water-cooler jug, which offers him a temporary respite from swimming, but is definitely not as good as an island. he clings to it, bobbing along half-blind in the grueling sun, with nothing to do but observe the fish in the water, taking shelter under the bottle. at first, these are just tiny and harmless fish, but after a while, the food chain is alerted, the bigger fish come out to play, and suddenly davey is dunh dunh dunnnhhhhhh – surrounded by sharks.
meanwhile, on land, davey’s family is awake, and looking all over for him, enlisting the help of that english family, the staff of the hotel, a boat captain, the deputy, and eventually, the coast guard. the land-story is told from the POV of davey’s brother brando and drew – the 14-year-old english girl, who saw davey earlier when he was reading under a palm tree.
good things:
* actual shark facts and also tips about what to do in a rip tide situation with a very smart parallel land-lubber example for kids who might not have ever been to the ocean, which makes the science of rip tides more understandable (which parallel davey only realizes when it is too late, but hopefully readers of this book will remember if they find themselves in a similar situation)
* good tension as miscommunication and misunderstandings keep davey in peril as his parents and the deputy track down false leads and davey just keep bobbing away out there, gripping his water bottle, thinking to himself “surely a rescue party has been organized by now!” the slow dawning as the other characters catch up to what the reader already knows.
* smart treatment of the frustration of being a kid around adults who just won’t listen, as brando tries to explain why he thinks his parents are wasting time chasing down these false leads
overall, it’s a fun summer thriller with genuine tension and a solid, action-y conclusion.
this book lists as YA, but to me, it reads more like MG-early teen. let’s say grades 6-9. the only reason it didn’t get a four star-rating from me is that i felt the characterization was a little shallow, and some of the writing was forced, mostly in the not-davey parts, when it reaches for humor. but that’s not something that anyone in the target audience is likely to complain about, so i definitely think younger readers would rate this higher.
netgalley denied this book to me, but i’m totally not bitter.
