Crocs, a Sharks Inc. book that effortlessly hooks readers 9 and up

Upper elementary school readers and older want to be respected, and-to an extent, challenged when they read for fun. There comes a point when elementary and middle school readers become aware of the fact that the books that they read are a direct reflection of who they are. They’ve got the staples that most of them are reading in fourth and fifth, with a few brave souls venturing out to discover something unique. That funnel opens up much more in middle school. Crocs is our first encounter with a book in the Sharks Inc. book series by New York Times-Bestselling author Randy Wayne White. It checks off so many columns in what ages nine through 15 are looking for in a great fiction book that it resembles a dog’s shopping list at the meat market.

What’s more important is that Crocs is not checking things off in the sense that they’re needed due to what’s trendy in publishing or among social movements. It’s simply a great, action-filled, mglit example of diverse, STEM-based, kids who are discovering nature, maybe some ghosts, history, conservation, stop some animal poachers, and hopefully attend a Halloween party.  That’s a tall order for mglit, but Crocs nails these things to the floor in such a manner that it plays out like a really cool movie that kids will absolutely love, and older audiences will enjoy also.

This is realistic fiction that takes place in Florida in a way that makes you feel the humidity from the water and the taste of the juice from an orange. We meet Doc Ford and Captain Hannah who are loosely overseeing Luke, Maribel, and Sabrina, a group of kids who love to explore, are independent, and have a good head on their shoulders. The kids are asked to go find an orange tree that’s proved to be resistant to the blight that’s currently decimating the region’s crops.

While exploring the area near one of the keys where they think the tree has been sighted they realize that it’s on property that’s owned by a reclusive captain. Captain Pony as the group learns, has a unique problem that the kids just might be able to assist her with. The kids discover that Pony was a child she found a grave that was thought to belong to the Calusa, a Native American tribe that lived in the area hundreds of years ago. Now she thinks that she’s haunted by his ghost, plus there’s a group of animal poachers who have been harvesting from the area and they learn that a 700-pound crocodile has started calling this key home.

What young readers will quickly discover is the pacing of Croc. It builds in such a clever way that they might not realize that it’s challenging to stop reading. Each chapter varies in length, with some as long as ten pages and others only being four or so pages. As the story progresses, each chapter ends on a cliffhanger, and between boats that are sinking, a mother crocodile searching for her babies while they (and the kids) are in the water, the poachers searching for them and the weather that could punish them all, audiences will be hooked.

Moreover, Crocs is easily digestible for those mglit readers to enjoy reading and the chapters don’t seem like a chore. This is effortless fun and stands alone as a book, but is even more welcoming when you realize that it’s the third in this series. You mean there’s more?, those young readers might ask themselves. Yes, yes there is-and if the other two books are any indication, then Sharks Inc. is a series that is attractive to so many upper elementary and middle school readers. It’s got more adventure than they’re used to in realistic fiction, that’s combined with STEM, nature, and emotion.  

Crocs is in the Sharks Inc. book series by Randy Wayne White and available on Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers.

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