Barnes & NobleShark Night by R. L. Stine

Dining at the Beach

Seven-year-old Nolan occasionally takes a break from YouTube and Fortnite to read with me, and this is his first book review. Over the past year we have checked out a number of RL Stine’s Goosebump books from the library and enjoyed them all. Edelweiss and Blackstone Publishing gave us a review copy of “Shark Night” and Nolan accepted his job as a book critic. A twelve-year-old boy named Liam finds himself in the middle of an action-packed adventure when he helps his mother on a documentary shoot for the Danger Channel's Shark Week. The show’s elevator pitch: a kid is put into a water tank to film a shark. Unbeknownst to the audience, the shark is an old, gentle hammerhead shark– certainly not a real threat. An early chapter ends with Liam screaming underwater, “Wrong shark! You sent down the WRONG SHARK!” The story's pacing was incredibly fast, a non-stop roller-coaster of twists and turns. Chapters would end with cliffhangers such as “...five minutes later, something terrible happened.” Titles for sections begin foreshadowing more suspense: “How Do You Scream Underwater?” From my point-of-view, I could see Nolan hanging on every word. Sometimes I have to gauge how his patience is going, how many chapters we can cover in a sitting, but this book held his attention pretty well. Nolan gave the book a great review! He particularly enjoyed Liam’s relationship with his pesky sister. Rosa, who he found to be both a helpful sidekick and an occasional annoyance (no doubt drawing inspiration from his own sister). He highlighted the scene when Rosa pushed Liam into the pool and enjoyed the unexpected dangers popping up just when you thought it was safe. He also appreciated that the children often outsmart the adults in the book. Overall, we highly recommend “Shark Night.” For us, it was a nice change-up from the Goosebumps style of horror we have been reading. That being said, we hit the library the other day and Nolan chose "Goosebumps: Hall of Horrors,” so Halloween springs eternal here. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. #SharkNight #BlackstonePublishing