Shark Week has begun – easily one of my favorite weeks of the year when I was growing up. I had a massive obsession with sharks and learning everything I possibly could about them, particularly when I was in middle school. My mom had gotten me a special book to indulge in that fascination for Christmas in sixth grade, and I carried it around in my backpack all the time.

Recently, I was feeling kind of nostalgic while looking back on those memories, so I tried searching for the book from my childhood. It seemed just obscure enough to be nearly impossible to find online. I ended up posting in a Facebook group for oddly specific questions in the hopes that somebody knew what the heck I was talking about, and I was genuinely surprised by how many awesome people on the internet participated in my book search. After a day or two of searching, someone found the elusive book!

It was Oceans: Discover the Marine World by Clint Twist, published by Silver Dolphin. I instantly recognized the lenticular moving cover with the yellow fish that would swim back and forth when you tilted it from side to side. I found a copy on Amazon for pretty cheap and had to order it for the trip down memory lane.

My husband and I had so much fun flipping through all 367 pages of this one together, it was a great way to spend an evening at home! I loved getting the chance to show him something that was so important to 11-year-old Maddie. From the perspective of 28-year-old Maddie, I always love revisiting the things that brought me joy when I was little.

Honestly, I wish I’d had this book in my fourth-grade classroom when I was teaching. It’s perfect for middle-grade readers who want something full of cool facts, especially kids (like me, back then) who have a special interest in the ocean. It covers all kinds of topics, from sea life and the environment to travel and shipwrecks, but for me, the shining feature of this book was the 32 pages dedicated to different species of sharks. Reading and rereading it as a kid really helped me learn more about that special interest, which eventually led to me memorizing maybe 200 different kinds of sharks and every fun fact I could find about them.

This is a book I’d recommend for upper elementary teachers to add to their classroom libraries, as well as for any middle schooler looking to take a deep dive into the fascinating world of the ocean. It’s perfect summer reading for kids who don’t have the patience for full novels or for those looking for a fun nonfiction alternative.

Let me know in the comments if you remember any great books from your childhood that seem to have been lost to obscurity over the years. You never know, someone may actually find them for you!