Sharks. They are my Achilles heel. For some reason they are my irrational fear. Yes, I lived in California, but I’ve never been deep enough into the Pacific to actually be in danger of sharks nor have I seen one in the wild. Ever since I was a kid though, they have been the one fear I couldn’t explain. As an adult I’ve just learned to own it. And I’m not the only one.
I was browsing my library’s new arrivals section and meandered over to the graphic novels section and saw the cover of Everything Is Teeth. I flipped through and saw that there were sharks and a little girl who was working out her own relationship with her fear/awe of sharks. I knew that was the book for me.
Evie Wyld shares in this memoir about her awe of sharks as a child. She visits her family in Australia every few years and each time she visits she has some encounter with a shark. Whether it’s receiving shark jaws as a gift, being shown a recently beached shark, or hearing stories from her relatives of finding bull sharks in the water. Side note: if you live or visit Australia, why are you getting in the water?!?! Everything wants to kill you!!
Mixed in this narrative is that of a family growing and changing with time. I enjoyed how the shark theme became a subplot that is woven into the story of how she adjusts and alters her relationship with her family as she ages.
As a kid who also had a mix of fear and awe for sharks I can relate to Evie. I’m glad, as an adult, she recognizes that sharks aren’t killers but should be protected as much as other sea creatures.
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