Horn Book (Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2000)

Determined to get a good view of the royal parade, "egg boy" Humpty Dumpty perches on top of a brick wall. But when Humpty loses his balance and topples through the roof of the king's carriage, it's up to shy King Moe to put all of Humpty's pieces together again. Collage art makes this slight tale visually interesting but doesn't make up for a forced and awkward rhyme scheme in the text.

School Library Journal

Gr 4-5--In a narrative that flows from the general to the specific, Simon describes the appearance, physical characteristics, and behavior of sharks. Large, full-color photographs amplify the text and hint at its contents. For example, a closeup of a sand tiger shark's open mouth and row upon row of teeth invites readers into the facing text, which describes how sharks bite and what happens when a tooth is broken or lost. A photo of the gaping mouth of a whale shark introduces the filter-feeders, a small group without teeth. The information is not indexed or divided into chapters. This is not as detailed a treatment as Mary M. Cerullo's Sharks (Cobblehill, 1993) or Sharks (Facts on File, 1987). Instead, it's an introduction to the topic that combines seamless description with excellent photos to describe creatures that never fail to fascinate.--Frances E. Millhouser, Chantilly Regional Library, VA

ALA Booklist

With a good balance of text and illustrations, Simon introduces the world of sharks. Always informative, he offers basic information about their variety, habits, physical characteristics, and life cycles. Although not captioned, the excellent full-color photographs relate so closely to the text on the opposite page that the pictures work in harmony with the words. An effective introduction to sharks. (Reviewed Oct. 15. 1995)