Lark the Shark

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Bruce's recent Monstertown Mysteries series blends horror and humor, based on his childhood love of monster movies. His other series include Class Pets, about the secret lives of classroom pets, and the forthcoming Outerspace Mystery Pizza Club books, due in 2024.

Optimize your viewing experience Please choose your prefered video player and we’ll save your selection:The young author and avid recycler said: “I wrote the book to highlight pollution in the sea, but whether it’s on land or water – there are lots of things we can all do to look after the environment. Even things like making sure we recycle as much as we can makes a difference. Henry Newman from Clore Tikva Primary School, in Ilford, co-wrote ‘Lark the Shark’ with his mum Natalie, after being inspired by his school homework about pollution.

I used this book in preschool story time, and the kids loved it. They loved guessing what would happen next, and sharing their own stories about sleepovers and how to overcome fears.

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This would be a great story for a teacher to share with his/her class, as a way of introduction to the school year. It is relevant to pupils, being set in a school, with regular routines of lessons and lunchtime. It is a good example of what rules and behaviour can be expected when at school such as using indoor voices appropriately, to respecting other pupils and their friendships.

The book tells the tale of a friendly shark who cleans up litter from the sea and promotes environmental awareness.The dynamic duo, Natalie Newman and her son Henry Newman have made waves in the children's book industry with their delightful and engaging " Lark the Shark" series. The books have been featured on the popular BBC News children's program, Newsround. The feature highlighted the Newman duo's passion for writing and the inspiration behind their lovable protagonist, Lark the Shark. Read the full feature here. Lark the Shark’s adventures continue with a morning litter cleaning of the sea, when Lark spots a strange shadow on the sea floor. What is this shadow? Lark swims down to investigate. This one is cute, but nothing spectacular. Clark is still a very relatable character for bouncy younger children. Here he runs the emotional gamut from excitement about his sleepover to fear of the dark. The pictures are still fun, with silly little jokes hidden in.

This could then lead on to some written activities like making up their own rhymes, including illustrations. They could do this either independently, in pairs or in groups. It has been some time since we first met Lark the Shark, written by Natalie Newman and her son Henry. Clark the Shark is such a catchy name! My nephew started saying it just looking at the cover. The illustrations were perfect for the story and well framed. We easily found a spread for my nephew to draw (the one where they are laying out in their sleeping bags). I didn't like the type face used inside the book - it was hard to read and didn't fit the style pf the art. In fact it ruined the art at times... The fifth book in an award-winning, easy-to-read series about a boy and his pet fly, each book in the series has a fun foil cover!The major themes in this story are overcoming your fears and friendship. Clark was very afraid of the dark but thought of ways that would help him get through the night without his night light, and he did it! But he couldn't have done it without the help of his friends. He was nervous that they would make fun of him for being scared of the dark, but instead they all came together and helped each other overcome their fears, which is what true friendship is all about. The character Clark is having his first sleepover, and him and all his friends are going to sleep outside in the dark. Clark is afraid of the dark, but to help him face his fear he creates a rhyme for himself- "Take heart, be smart, sharks aren't afraid of the dark". Clark and his friends realize that it's okay to have fears, and they get through their fears through creating a rhyme together. There's also some great word play with nonsense words like "upsy-downsy", "spinna-ma-jig" and "tail-whump-a-lumpus". These words are very exciting for kids and encourage word-play that can be very good for language development.