Shark in the Park is ideal for both phonological awareness and print motivation - the rhyming text on each page can be highlighted easily, as can the repeated refrain, "There's a shark!  In the Park!"  Children can easily remember the refrain by the 3rd repetition, and chime in quite naturally. The opening spread gives a great opportunity for involving the audience - ask them report things they see in the opening spread, several of which will later be mistaken for the shark's fin.  Also, the final page, with the shark fin popping up in the pond, makes many children point and shriek, "there's a shark, there's a shark!" I have used this quite successfully with Toddlers and Preschoolers, in the library and classroom settings.

Parent Message: A fun way to work on phonological awareness is to make up goofy rhymes. After reading this book, you can also see if the kids can come up with some other rhymes like 'There's a duck in the truck!' or 'There's a snake on the lake!' Give them the first part and have them come up with a rhyme, or have them suggest an animal and you come up with a rhyming word.

Natasha Forrester