Book
Reviews:An adaptation of Capuzzo's adult book, Close to Shore: A True
Story of Terror in an Age of Innocence (Broadway, 2001). During the summer of
1916, just as railroad travel enabled city dwellers to make day-trips to the seashore
and swimming in the ocean became popular, bathers along the East Coast were frightened
away by a series of vicious attacks in the water. During a one-month period, three
men and one boy were killed. Initial opinions of the attacker ranged from sea
turtles to killer whales or swordfish, before it was determined to be the work
of a rogue white shark. Capuzzo describes the shark's quest to satiate his hunger
with the flesh of humans, sometimes verging close to anthropomorphism as he builds
an atmosphere of suspense about the creature, its wanderings and its means of
attack. The menacing cover of a gaping shark's mouth, ... and the suspenseful
writing add to the accessibility of this work for young people.
- School
Library Journal The jacket photo, a gruesome close-up of an open-mouthed
shark, sets the tone for this riveting adaptation of Capuzzo's similarly titled
adult book about what occurred when, in 1916, a rogue shark traveled inland along
a New Jersey creek, terrorizing residents of nearby towns...The vividness and
sheer physicality of Capuzzo's writing remains intact. In many ways this is a
new book. Capuzzo reconstructs events with a novelist's flair and a scientist's
attention to detail, and his pacing is relentless as the story moves from cultural
history and shark physiology to close-ups of the crazed, disoriented beast slicing
through the water. When the shark dies at the hands of two astounded fishermen,
readers will experience relief as well as a sense of tragedy.
- ALA
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Ages:
9 and up 
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