Dad: This week's book is "Shark and Lobster's Amazing Undersea Adventure" by Viviane Schwarz.Isaac (age 10): This book is one of my favorites. It's so funny.
Dad: So, what's the first thing you notice about this book?
Isaac: It's sideways. You have to hold it sideways in order to read it.
Gracie (age 8): I think that's cool!
Isaac: That's good for this book. The characters are funny and confused, so the book is the exact same way too.
Dad: Tell me about the story...
Lily (age 5): A shark and a lobster and little tiny cuttlefishes were building a fortress to keep tigers away. But then they realized their fortress was just a pile of rocks...
Gracie: ...so they freaked out...
Lily: ...and they went down to get a great big giant monster, and they wrapped it around themselves. But then the monster was chasing them!
Isaac: That monster is very, very ugly. Uglier than other monsters. And... is it wearing tapshoes?
Gracie: It has a fork-nose and eyelashes. It's ugly!
Isaac: Why does it have little windows on it?
Gracie: You can see a ship and fish bones inside it.
Isaac: I think it would be hard for the monster to grab anyone because its hands are on its eyeballs.
Gracie: I like how there are mysteries in this book. Like - what kind of monster IS that fish-thing? And how did it get there? How did they learn about tigers? I don't understand... they tied the monster in a knot?
Isaac: How did they tie him? He was ten times bigger than them!
Dad: Those must be very strong cuttlefish...
Isaac: Ha ha ha! Yeah!
Dad: So this book raises lots of silly questions. Does it bother anyone that we don't know the answers, or is that part of the fun?
Gracie: (dramatically) It drives me crazy!
Dad: Goofball, you just said you liked the mysteries!
Isaac: I wonder how the lobster and the shark heard about tigers? They live miles and miles and miles away from tigers.
Gracie: Maybe there's a traveling crab that they are friends with... and he traveled to a zoo... and he saw tigers.
Isaac: Or maybe it was whales because they do move back and forth from Antarctica to hotter places...
Gracie: Don't get all "schooly..." This is supposed to be fun.
Dad: How about the pictures?
Gracie: Borders!
Dad: You mean panels? Yep, everything is in boxes like in comic books.
Isaac: And whenever somebody is talking they put it in "word bubbles."
Lily: I like the little tiny cuttlefishes because they are cute and you can barely see any of them... they're just little tiny black dots.
Isaac: The pictures weren't drawn with a perfect straight line or really serious. They are kind of bumpy and -- at first it seems like it wouldn't take much work... but if you really look at it, it would be kind of hard to do that.
Dad: The lines are loose... It's a loose style of drawing.
Gracie: Kids would really love this book. I really love this book. Hey, (pointing at a picture) what is that?
Dad: That's one of the monster's eyes.
Gracie: It's smaller than the cuttlefish!
Dad: (laughing) You guys love those cuttlefish! They must be the stars of the show.
no tigers, by Isaac
looking at cuttlefish with a magnifying glass, by Gracie
great big giant monster, by LilyAuthor/Illustrator: Viviane Schwarz
Colorer: Joel Stewart
Published, 2006: Candlewick Press
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