Shark Dog!

Adamson’s narrator, a redheaded girl with a “famous explorer” for a father, discovers the species described in the title when he stows away on their boat—he has a shark’s bullet-shaped head, a terrier’s body, and big googly eyes. Shark Dog proves to be as disruptive a pet as he is loyal: he fetches an entire tree instead of the usual stick (“at the park, we didn’t stay long”) and stalks a cat through tall grass like the great white in Jaws. But when Shark Dog starts yearning for his own kind (an inflatable shark toy reminds him of his friends back home) the girl realizes that her pet might need to return to his former home. What follows, and the happy ending that ties it all up, suggests that Adamson (Douglas, You Need Glasses!) is more interested in chronicling the idiosyncratic slapstick of his hybrid hero (in a series of vignettes that goes on for a bit too long) than in exploring the bittersweet selflessness of recognizing that a wild animal belongs in the wild. Ages 4–8. Agent: Isabel Atherton, Creative Authors. (May)