Chomp Chomp Shark

The board book Chomp Chomp Shark is a most appropriate bathtime read. Its five spreads feature a hungry shark that chomps its way through the settings, and, in each, one of Puffinton’s quatrains (abcb rhyme scheme) identifies precisely what it is that the shark is going to CHOMP. Of course, the wordless invitation is for the young listeners to find in the illustrations those things that the shark has bitten. And, should youngsters not know what “chomp” means, the book’s designers have illustrated its definition via die-cut bites out of two corners of each spread (excluding the back cover).

Though Chomp Chomp Shark begins (see Excerpt) in an “ocean” setting, the objects that the shark has chomped upon may be the same things that have accompanied the listening child into the bathtub. The other spread settings take the child into the ocean’s depths where they will find sunken pirate treasure, a coral reef, a lost city and then be off to a deserted island.

Doyle’s illustrations definitely have a Finding Nemo or Finding Dory feel to them, and his rendering of the shark is restrained in its ferociousness.
A finger puppet of “Chompy” is included, and readers of the book could make fun use of it during the reading, especially at the end where the final chomp-target is YOU!

Chomp Chomp Shark, an introductory seek and find board book, is likely more a home than an institutional purchase.