Another middle grade graphic novel. Shark Summer has amazing artwork and I loved all of the details. The story was a lot of fun. Our main character is in a new town and trying to deal with many events happening. There’s a crew making a movie and she and her friends decide to as well about a local legend. This was a fast and fun read.

What a fun summer read! I’m always a fan of graphic novels, but I’m always particularly excited when I get asked to review one that is aimed at the Middle Grade audience. It’s fun to see how the author and illustrator work together to tell a story that will resonate with a younger audience. Or, you know, with an audience who just loves this stories hahaha. In this case I think that they hit the nail right on the head!

Gayle Briar is in a mood. She lost her star pitcher status to a broken arm, her mother moved her to a new home, and now even their dream plans for moving there have fallen through. It’s no wonder that Gayle’s character isn’t pleased at the beginning of the story. Funnily enough though, I found myself understanding her completely. Change is hard and, as my grandpa used to say, it often comes in waves. How do you hold your head above the water until the wave passes?

Lucky for Gayle, there is a movie being filmed on the island and getting close to that opens an adventure like nothing else. I wish that I could share more, but I dare not spoil anything! What I will say is that this reminded me a lot of all my favorite books as a kid. Filled with mysteries, a little darkness, and the kind of friendship that only blooms in the face of something a little scary.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this! If you’re looking for something fun for a summer pool read, or looking for a good read for your kid’s summer list, pick this up! The illustrations are vibrant, and convey the story so well. I highly recommend you give it a shot!

An edgy middle-grade graphic novel that is quite a fun summer read!

Gayle has a pitching accident that ends up ruining her and her new teams chance at championships. She spends the beginning of summer completely bummed, friendless and moping around. Her and her mom are supposed to be opening up an ice cream shop (her moms dream) but due to Gayle’s accident, her mom has to take on work at the local hotel to pay off the hospital bills, putting the ice cream shop on an indefinite pause.

Gayle finds two unlikely friends and they end up working on a film together for a summer film festival with a cash prize; money that Gayle is hoping to win and help her mom with.

The rag tag trio end up learning island stories about a shark cult, a naval captain and it’s quite the dark, mystery summer adventure where they ultimately realize what friendship truly is about.

Not only is the story great, but I love the style of art and the colors. I also love the deaf representation seen in one of the parents. This is going to be the must-read middle-grade graphic novel of the summer!

This graphic novel was so fun. Loved the story. Gave me all the jaws vibe I needed from it. I loved the way everything unfolded. Shark Summer is really a story about friendship and family.

I had a lot of fun reading this! The artwork was beautiful and I was definitely a fan of the colouring style. The setting had a great small town vibe that was reminiscent of summer. I enjoyed all the characters and thought that they each played a unique role in the story. I loved seeing their friendships develop and seeing how this helped each character grow. It was also realistic in that not all friendships are perfect and they need work and cooperation to flourish. The idea of making a home movie for a contest was very cute and made for a very interesting story as they travelled around the island and interviewed residents. The movie being shot on the island also gave insight into movie making and seeing one of the crew take the kids under their wing was very heart warming. I felt that the plot progressed at a good pace and had many twists. Overall this was a very enjoyable graphic novel that I think is perfect for the summer!

I really try hard to read a variety of genres but I am such a mood reader that I sometimes get stuck in a rut and read the same thing repeatedly. That is one reason I was really glad that @tbrbeyondtours & @iramarcks gave me the opportunity to read and review Shark Summer a graphic novel by Ira Marcks.
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I have a twelve year old step-grandson who I had in mind the whole time I was reading this. I think it is perfect for that middle-grade age group, girls or boys, but I enjoyed it as an adult too because it wasn’t written down to a lower level but had some solid plot themes and real depth. Yes- all that in a graphic novel! I also have a daughter who has always been obsessed with sharks and I could see her clearly as one of the characters in this book.
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There is a mystery to solve and these kids are all about that, plus winning the prize money from the youth film contest would be nice too. I got some great Scooby-Doo vibes here, just a little bit darker and with a little more meat in the bones.
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The artwork was great and the story fully entertained me. I am so glad I read this one and you will be too. It would be a great addition to your TBR.
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I didn't know a ton about this graphic novel going in but I was prepared for it to be a fun summer story, and it was! I really enjoyed the story as we followed Gayle as she navigated summer in Martha's Vineyard, made new friends, dealt with a movie crew on location and dove deep into an old legend. She was definitely a complex character with not only issues that a lot of teens face, but she's also having a crisis of identity due to what happened in her last baseball game, plus those she thought were her friends maybe aren't as good of friends as she thought. While the plot has lots of components to it, I felt they were all wrapped up really well by the end of the graphic novel.

A big thank you to TBR and Beyond Tours for allowing me a space on this blog tour and to Little Brown for sending me an Netgalley Arc. Unfortunately I was having immense trouble reading it on my kindle (am due an eye test soon) and it wasn't doing anything for me reading an ebook copy as straight away I knew this book deserved to be read physically so I got a copy and I was not disappointed at all. To me Shark Summer is about found friends who really in a school setting would not even share the same air but here Gayle, Maddie and Elijah are making a film about the island's own sea monster and at the same time a real film is being made was. I found this so clever and I got all the nostalgic feels of being a certain age. This was one incredible storyline and I was surprised when I read this was Ira's debut Graphic Novel his ideas and artwork are truly stunning. I can't wait to see what he comes out with next. Then you have a twist that is all I am saying I was not expecting that at all and it did make me go wow. So I had to give this wonderful books 5 big fat stars.

Review to come July 3rd to blog/goodreads/etc..

A summer that started off horrible will turn into something fun. Friendship, sharks, and cameras!

So I had the pleasure of being part of the Blog Tour for this book, I even had an e-ARC. But I had to get my own copy to actually be able to read the book (which I definitely didn't minded because what I could read was tons of fun). Sadly, the e-ARC had the same problem many graphic novels on Netgalley have. Blurry text. Not doing single pages but double which squeezes everything together. Thankfully Amazon had the book in stock and I quickly got it. And I immediately went to read it and WOW.

This is going to be a bit chaotic of a review. Haha. I loved this book so much but my mind is a bit scrambled. So sorry in advance!

In this one we meet Gayle who had the worst luck ever. Her season with baseball ended up terribly with her getting a broken arm and thus rendering her useless. There goes her summer of baseball. I felt for Gayle, she just moved, baseball is her whole life and then BOOM, injury and it's over. Add to that this is America so have fun with debts (which still is totally fucked up to me) so other plans are also over as her mom has to work twice as hard to get money. So it was a bit doom/gloom at the beginning with a very unhappy Gayle, a summer that seemed to go nowhere... but thankfully the book gets much happier and the fun got back!

Because there is a competition! Make a movie. Win tons of money. Thankfully, Gayle has a wonderful friend named Elijah who loves making movies. Together they search to make a movie and meet friends along the way. I really loved seeing this group of kids get closer. Because at first there was quite a bit of tension. Maddie is a bit weird of a character and it took me (and the rest of the kids) to get used to her strange ways. But boy, she could tell stories!

I really had fun seeing the kids make their own movie, narrate, interview, and shoot beautiful scenes and have Elijah stitch it together to make something. But I also loved that we saw bits and pieces of the other movie (the big one from Hollywood) pop up at times. I love Jaws so it was fun to see all the props, see the robot shark.

I wasn't a fan of Lex, but I started to warm up to him as the story went on. He does have some more improving to do, but he is getting there.

The ending, wow what a thrill! What a ride! I feel sad that this was their decision... but I could also understand why. The epilogue was such a nice addition and it had me smiling from ear to ear because it was just so sweet and heart-warming.

The art? Love love love it. It is such a great style and I love the colours that were used. They fit so well with the mood, the summer vibes.

All in all, I would highly recommend this book to all! Be sure to check this one out!

What a fun and exciting story! I actually did not expect to like this as much as I did. The storyline took on a darker twist to it that I did not see coming. I enjoyed mystery (Scooby-doo)/middle grade horror (Goosebumps shows and R.L. Stine books) as a child and this was very reminiscent of those. I can not help being drawn in to any story that involves sharks and mysteries because those are two of my favorite things. This novel is good for all ages... young and old alike. This is definitely one that earns a place on my shelves for sure.

After Gayle breaks her arm ending her baseball season early, she finds herself creating a film with an aspiring cinematographer and Maddie, a misunderstood student. I absolutely enjoyed reading this graphic novel. I loved the Atwood Legend and it reminded me of one of my favorite cartoons growing up, Scooby Doo.

My favorite character would have to be Maddie Grey. I absolutely love that she lives in a lighthouse and spends a lot of time studying the history and the maps of the area. Although at the beginning she was teased and misunderstood, a great friendship grows between Gayle, Elijah, and Maddie.

With mystery, friendship, family, and searching for stories, this graphic novel is a great pick for the summer. With the amazing pops of color, I hope you enjoy this graphic novel as much as I did!

This graphic novel was well written, beautifully illustrated and portrayed the charcaters brilliantly. I liked the idea of the characters trying to capture the legend of the island through the islanders through their film. The backstory was spooky, mainly because of the panel colors. There was a twist in the end that I didn't see it coming, but it was perfect for the story. I highly recommend this book to middle-grade readers and anyone in general looking for their next summer read. It was exiting, adventurous and warm.


Thanks for the author, publisher,TBRandBeyondTours, and NetGalley for this eARC.

This was a cute middle grade read. Despite the size, it was a quick read. The story was simple enough with a little bit of mystery. I found it to be a younger read than I would normally pick up, but it tackled some more difficult topics. There was one character that was bullied, another that was a new kid, and the last main character felt ignored by his father. Marcks' handled these topics well, even with them taking more of a back seat.

There are moments where Marcks shows humour that were fun and didn't dominate the scene (more tongue-in-check style), which I think fit the story well. Upon opening the graphic novel, the art style takes a more comic panel feel (screaming a retro feel) that would feel at home with the older Archie, Calvin and Hobbes, and Baby Blues strips.

I loved the contrast Marcks has managed to show between a scene with more action and scenes that want us to take a moment and breathe. The panels are always vibrant, but still manages that retro feel.

The mystery of finding this Town's legend was interesting enough, and with the added town characters you get the feeling of a town hiding their little history. I loved the heavy nod towards 80s movies. Throughout this entire comic you can see that Marcks loves movies. Even I was able to see the homage to Jaws. Those who have watched it will see all the hidden - and not so hidden - pieces of trivia throughout the graphic novel. While talking to my husband about them calling the mechanical shark Bruce, he immediately said "just like Jaws". I was finally like, oh yeah so this movie is definably a fictionalized version of Jaws.

Gayle Briar was the pitcher on her softball team until she broke her arm. Now, her mother has moved them to Martha’s Vineyard because her mom has fond memories of spending the summers there when she was a kid. Their plan to open an ice cream stand is put on hold when her mom has to get a higher paying job to pay for Gayle’s hospital bills. Gayle explores the island and watches the filming of a shark movie. Gayle ends up finding Elijah, a young eager filmmaker, and Maddie, a local girl with a ghost story. The three of them make a shark film to enter into a film competition, but they end up uncovering an ancient island secret.

This is the perfect summer read. Gayle had moved to Martha’s Vineyard, but since it was her first time spending the summer there, it was like she was on a vacation and learning about the island for the first time. Elijah was just in town for the season and Maddie had lived there all her life, but she was bullied by the local children. They were each outsiders in some way. The three of them made a good group to discover the island secrets.

I love it when characters explore an ancient ghost story! Those stores about ghosts and hidden histories fascinated me as a kid. Maddie knew a ghost story and they used it as inspiration to make their film. What Gayle and Elijah didn’t know was that the ghost story was part of a deeper secret on the island. This secret reveal at the end of the story tied everything in together, and made the story feel complete.

Shark Summer is a fun middle grade graphic novel for the summer!

Thank you Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review
Title: Shark Summer by Ira Marcks
Genre: Graphic Novel
Rating: 4 Stars
As many of my readers will know I don’t read comics and graphic novels that often but Shark Summer caught my eye with its beautiful cover and interesting premise. On thing I noticed straight away about this graphic novel was that the art style was super cute and really appealed to my tastes. The way the graphic novel is designed and the story itself really reminded me of later 2000’s kids movies that were slightly edgier, moving towards the teen genre like Monster House. We are introduced to Gayle who after breaking her arm gets to spend the summer at Martha’s Vineyard. Her mother is working extra hard in order to cover her medical expenses (America!) which means the dream of opening an ice cream store are put on hold for the time being. I really liked how the family dynamic was established early on and that some of the internal conflict came from things that ordinary people reading this novel can relate to like medical expenses.
While Gayle mopes around as kids do she makes some new friends in the form of Elijah and Maddie. Both Elijah and Maddie are outcasts like Gayle which means they instantly bond and end up working together on a youth film project in order to win the prize money. Any horror movie fans like myself will be able to tell that the movie in this graphic novel is clearly inspired by Jaws if it wasn’t obviously from the cover then it soon becomes very easy to see in the story. The rest of the graphic novel is just following Gayle, Elijah and Maddie on this wild adventure that to me reminded me a little of Scooby-Doo mixed with some major gothic vibes, strange history about cults and the sharks themselves.
Overall, I wasn’t expecting Shark Summer to be as dark as it turned out to be and I think depending on the reader this might be too dark for some younger readers. If you were fan of scary books like Goosebumps as a kid or enjoyed movies like Monster House then I would definitely recommend Shark Summer as it brought back all those creepy, nostalgic feelings for me and I really enjoyed it, however, I would recommend getting a physical copy rather than a digital one as the layout was strange to read on my kindle and I did have to go back once or twice as I felt that something was missing but it was probably a formatting issue.