16 Engaging Shark Books, Activities, and Shows for Shark Week Fun

Overview: Celebrate Shark Week with our top 16 shark books, activities, and shows! Dive into fun and educational content perfect for all shark enthusiasts. Explore now and make your Shark Week unforgettable.

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Whether you’re looking for shark books and resources to use with your kids during Shark Week or you just have a child who’s a fan of sharks, there are so many interesting books, videos, and other resources you will want to check out!

Put together a few of these shark books for kids, activities, and documentary ideas and you’ll have created a fascinating unit study to go through with your shark-loving children!

Fiction Shark Books for Kids

Shark in the Park – Ages 3 and up – Created in consultation with a language expert, this book is part of an engaging new phonics-based series, specially written to help your child learn to read. Not only is the story great fun, but it also takes into account recent research on the most effective ways of teaching reading.

Stephen Cartwright’s delightful illustrations complement the text and stimulate further interest. Fold-out pages add to the enjoyment.

Shark Bait (Book 3 of the Extreme Adventures series) – Ages 8-12 – When Sam and his friend are swept off the coast of the Great Barrier Reef, Sam must fight to keep them alive. Even as night falls over the ocean, the underwater predators move in.

With a talent for attracting danger, Sam Fox is an expert at getting himself into (and out of) the most extreme situations. This series has a powerful appeal with a courageous young hero and exotic settings and has non-stop action and brief chapters which will engage reluctant readers.

Non-Fiction Shark Books for Kids

Lift-the-Flap Sharks – Ages 4 and up – Sharks aren’t just scary fish with pointy teeth. Lift the flaps in this richly illustrated book to meet gentle giants, fierce hunters, beady-eyed baby sharks, and the weird, weedy wobbegong.

Super Shark Encyclopedia – Ages 5-9 – Super Shark is so much more than just an educational book about sharks. From Barrel Shrimp to Blue Sharks, Starfish to Bat Fish, and Hammerhead Sharks to deep-sea monsters, rays, and eels, they have packed this book with unbelievable facts about animal behavior and anatomy. New x-ray artworks use cross-sections to strip layers away and show key anatomical features in great detail. 

It highlights the deadliest predators and the most venomous creatures and explains how and why their bodies work the way they do. The combination of spectacular photography and clear authoritative text truly makes Super Shark the ultimate visual guide to the oceans’ most peculiar creatures and their stories.

Big Book of Sea Creatures – Open the huge fold-out pages to discover all kinds of extraordinary sea creatures, from the leatherback sea turtle and great white shark to the biggest animal on earth—the mighty blue whale.

The Ultimate Books of Sharks – Ages 9-12 – Join this amazing underwater adventure to track the sharks of the world, from the teeniest dogfish to the ever feared great white. This ultimate book features every species of shark on the planet, with exceptional photos, fascinating facts, the latest science, and firsthand stories of real-life encounters with these incredible creatures. Learn how sharks live, how they eat, the challenges they face, and whether you are actually on the menu!

Activity Shark Books for Kids

Build Your Own Sea Creatures (ages 6 and up) – Journey to the depths of the ocean and meet some of its deadliest, strangest, and most incredible animals with this outstanding sticker book. From polar seas to tropical reefs, you’ll meet humpback whales, hammerhead sharks, lionfish, and many more. Complete them using the stickers, and read the descriptions to find out fascinating facts about each one.

Build Your Own Deadly Animals Sticker Book (ages 6 and up) – In this thrilling sticker book, you can build some of the most awe-inspiring animals on the planet – from majestic big cats to a tentacled terror of the deep. Add the right stickers to complete your creatures, then read their description and statistics to find out what makes them so special.

Sharks Ultimate Sticker Book – Packed with shark activities — from creating underwater scenes to a game of spot the shark — Ultimate Sticker Book: Shark contains more than 250 reusable stickers of kids’ favorite predators of the ocean. Featuring great whites, hammerheads, basking sharks, and more, they pair fun facts with bright, eye-catching stickers, encouraging children to return to this new sticker book again and again to learn even more.

Shark Mad Libs – Beware of shark-infested…PINEAPPLES?! Only in Shark Attack Mad Libs! This book includes 21 not-so-scary stories all about the ocean’s most feared and misunderstood creatures: sharks! There’s nothing to fear inside this book of silly shark-themed stories, perfect for playing on your next summer road trip or sitting by the pool.

Shark Art Lessons for Kids

You Are An Artist – Chalk Pastel Shark Drawing Lessons

Nana brings the art fun with a Sharks Video Art Lessons! All it takes is a starter set of chalk pastels, construction paper and Nana’s video art lessons for a celebration of Shark Week or to thrill your shark enthusiast. No expensive, intimidating list of art supplies. This set of Sharks Video Art Lessons is a wonderful stand-alone art curriculum or a perfect complement to your summer fun or shark learning throughout the year.

Shark Crafts for Kids

Shark Paper Mouth Craft – by Glued to My Crafts Blog

Shark Paper Plate Craft – by Kid’s Activities Blog

Printable Shark Puppet – by Easy Peasy and Fun

Shark Digital Programming for Kids

If it’s Shark Week, you will want to be sure to tune in for at least a few of the over 20 hours of programming on the Discovery Channel. The shows air from 8 pm to 11 pm so I suggest DVRing some of the episodes so that you can watch them a little bit earlier in the day. This will help younger kids to sleep better at night rather than having them watch something scary right before bed.

If you have Amazon Prime, here are some Shark Documentaries which you can watch for free:

Of Sharks and Men – Filmmakers team up with scientists and shark attack victims to explore the fierce underwater world of our ocean’s greatest predator.

Shark Nation – There’s no doubt sharks have an image problem. And they’re certainly in trouble globally. The population of some species has declined by more than 90% due to overfishing.

But there’s still one place in the world where sharks thrive – the Bahamas. Sharks not only prosper there, but they are also highly protected. It’s one of the few places in the world where killing a shark is illegal.

Shark Gordon – Travel around the world looking for sharks with renowned expert Ian Gordon. In this exciting 13-part series, you’ll get up close and personal with a wide variety of these magnificent creatures, learning their habits, feeding and breeding grounds, and what makes them dangerous. For Ian “Shark” Gordon, life doesn’t get much better than an encounter with a deadly shark.