This week in homeschool, my kids and I are learning about sea life. Specifically, fish. I went to the library and checked out a whole heap of books on fish, sharks, giant squid, piranhas...everything. And one of those books is simply a gem! Or, rather, one page of the book is a gem. Literally priceless. Allow me to share an excerpt:
"Your chances of being killed by a shark are very, very small. You stand a better chance of winning the lottery, being struck by lightning, or dying from a bee sting than being attacked and killed by a shark.
You will more likely die of an illness, being in a car accident, drowning, eating food with harmful germs, or being shot! About 1,000 times more people die every year from accidents with guns in the Unites States alone than from shark attacks worldwide.
Count all the people killed in all shark attacks. The total doesn't come close to the number of people who are killed by each other."
Taken from Killer Sharks, Killer People an Imagination Library Series book, (emphasis added).
My kids are not wimps. They can handle gruesome. They can handle morbid, scary, frightening, and all kinds of horror. But this?? This book is telling my kids seven ways in which it seems they are likely to die, and they are all pretty awful.
And seriously? Being shot? Did we really need to include that, people?
But now that I'm thinking about it, Dr. Suess could probably have worked wonders with this topic. I feel a future blog post being developed...
Yeesh. Impractical or not - sharks still terrify me.
ReplyDeleteSounds like there was an adgenda...
ReplyDeleteWell, going by the title of the book... that makes sense. But, I'm glad I can stop worrying about those pesky shark attacks now. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI believe the shark that is trying to eat me will be struck by lightning, in turn frying me in mid bite just as my power ball numbers hit. Freaking sad.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're able to instill some good old fashioned paranoia through homeschooling. Y'all will be building an underground bunker any day now with hand sanitizer everywhere!
ugh... I wouldn't want to be in your shoes during the following discussions.
ReplyDeleteThe title kinda does imply that this book may offer more than ferocious fins. Is the Imagination Library Series geared toward children? If so, that's pretty scary.
But I think if you consider that the general population does not enter water where sharks live, and maybe those stats would change? cuz LL's story (and the number of sharks she's seen in her years) are plenty scary for me!
ReplyDeletePretty funny. I wonder if the person that wrote that book thought they were being comforting in writing that passage? Okay, now I'm not afraid of sharks, but I'm petrified of eating food that might be germy!
ReplyDeleteI think the person who wrote that book had some SERIOUS issues about death and dying! Come on, people...get a grip. Anyone who reads Lula Lola's blog KNOWS that sharks are serious stuff.
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