Sharks and other dangers of the deep

In a series of highly colourful and idiosyncratically typographed spreads, this landscape picture book presents an excellently illustrated cast of 17 popular sharks and rays – from the giant, harmless, whale shark, via the fastest (20mph no less!) Mako to the most dangerous Bull – and then goes on to some poisonous fish.

Great emphasis is placed on the ‘danger rating’ of each species. This, of course, means danger to humans who elect to enter the fishes’ firmament. No mention whatever is made of the danger posed to all these fish by our consistent exploitation of their habitat. And what is ‘danger’ anyway? Our world would be vastly different without earthworms, to which blackbirds, badgers, bowling-green-keepers and other well-loved creatures pose a far greater ‘danger’ than sharks do to humans.

The pictures are good, though, and should provide for enjoyable encounters of the brief kind to readers from about 6 to 14.