Shark vs Train 
by Chris Barton, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld, Little, Brown, 2010
I loved this photo from the Blue Rose Girls wrap-up of ALA. Team Shark or Team Train? Who is superior? That is a question that could lead to an inspired library lesson. If you need some help, Little, Brown has a Shark vs Train website, with posters and activity sheets to download.
Tom Lictenheld's comic illustrations are delivered with broad, over-the-top humor and subtle nudges which will delight the book's audience of kids and kids of a "certain age," as the French say. A sly and canny wit underpins the project which comes from Chris Barton's inspired concept of a shark and a train, trying to out-do each other. The story is a celebration of children and imaginative play.
If it is not on your library shelf yet,then this is a must have for your school library's first order of the year.
In fact if you don't have Barton's 2010 Sibert Honor biography, The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors
, illustrated by Tony Persiani, Charlesbridge, 2009, in your library, you best get a copy of it too!
, illustrated by Tony Persiani, Charlesbridge, 2009, in your library, you best get a copy of it too!