Book Review: Shark Bait by Justin D'Ath

Shark Bait
by Justin D'Ath
Extreme Adventures

Kane Miller
ISBN-10: 1-935279-70-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-935279-70-9
Publication Date: September, 2010
List Price: $5.99

Review: Imagine… you’re stranded in the ocean… you’re surrounded by sharks and other dangerous underwater creatures… you have no idea where you are or what dangers lay ahead …what would you do??? In Shark Bait one of the Extreme Adventures books by Justin D’Ath this all happens to these two middle school kids, Sam (the narrator) and Michi (his friend) who are in. Also in this fiction adventure story, there are lots of surprises and mysteries that need to be solved.

There are many exciting events in this book. Being stuck in the middle of the ocean is definitely one of the huge ones. Also getting shoved and locked in a bird cage with an extremely dangerous and humongous bird, while trying to save someone from a ferocious hunting dog…. That is definitely on that list. I expected almost all of the book to be about the two kids in water trying to find land and everything… but the book will surprise you with some of the adventures and obstacles the two kids encounter.

Shark Bait is very entertaining and exciting, and makes you want to keep reading more and more. There are multiple obstacles and each one of them has an impact on what will happen next. There are lots of exciting and unique events that happen in this book. In chapter 1 the tsunami strikes which kind of kicks off the book. Some chapters after this the two kids get caught up in sharks and dolphins. When they see a hug shark come by, quickly realizing that this was a whale shark, they hitch a ride near land, but in the middle of this the Sam and Michi experience getting in the middle of a “snake spaghetti bowl” and getting trapped in a giant clam’s mouth. Shortly afterwards Sam gets invaded by criminals… and another adventure takes flight. The book definitely had me wanting to keep reading on and kept me on my toes. I also liked the language separation between the two kids, because Michi speaks Japanese and Sam speaks English. It gave the book more difficulty and just made most of the situations so much more challenging to get through. The only way they can communicate is through characters from Finding Nemo so when they talk it’s hard to get the message across. However, the relationship grows between the two kids as the book goes on. You may assume the two kids are children, but as you read on they seem to get more mature and learn from their mistakes and even find some of their unknown talents. I also liked how in some parts the author throws in some factual information about the source of the problem is such as like sharks, clams, birds, sea snakes, ect. “Whale sharks are the world’s largest fish… they aren’t scared of humans. Sometimes they even let humans ride on their backs.” Finally I love how there is a mystery in the book. The mystery is surprising and unexpected. The mystery creates suspense and all the while there is a mystery developing and at the end Sam discovers the solution.

I absolutely loved Shark Bait. I would definitely recommend this book to all young readers, and I give this book four and a half stars.

Review written by Abigail (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Kane Miller for providing a copy of Shark Bait for this review.

Have you read Shark Bait? How would you rate it?