Hot Wheels: Shark Attack is a picture book, with words detailing the clash between Team Hot Wheels and some gigantic sharks. It is suitable for readers age 4 and up. I can find no information about the author of this work, other than it is licensed by Mattel.
Recently, the Dollar Tree changed its prices from $1 to $1.25. This slight increase in price has made me double-think some of my more impulsive, ironic purchases. But when I saw the cover, showing a car racing on a track that was simultaneosly being bitten by a giant, leaping, oversized Great White Shark, I knew I had to buy it.
The story begins with four drivers of Team Hot Wheels going to race at a gigantic looping track on the beach. There is a sign that says "Beware of Sharks", but do they? No. Incidentally, while there are four drivers, there are only two cars. The Red Driver (incidentally, the drivers aren't given personalities, and I have no idea if there is some Hot Wheels backstory mythology that explains the dynamics of Team Hot Wheels) successfully loops around the track at first, before the inevitable shark attack. The Red Driver concludes his time on the track and waves a warning to the Yellow Driver to warn him, although how the Yellow Driver could have missed a 50 foot shark jumping a hundred feet in the air and snapping the track almost in two I don't know. The Yellow Driver doesn't care because he has a "surprise" for the sharks. As we find out, the surprise is that the Yellow Driver's car has metal teeth on the front, which are "bigger than any shark's", which doesn't seem to be supported by the artwork, which shows the sharks having maws large enough to swallow an entire vehicle. But they are scared away, giving the car (and the reader) funny "Oh Shit" looks that I never thought I would see coming from a shark. The Yellow Driver slams through the course, does a Tokyo Drift and comes out for high fives, with the "Beware of Sharks" sign modified to say "Beware of Team Hot Wheels".
And I am.
The final page of the story reveals the Yellow Driver's car in its full detail: it was a shark all along. In this Tomato Surprise ending, we find out that we were the real sharks all along.
This book made me feel better about being alive, at least for a little while. I have no idea what the intended audience would think of it. There could be negative lessons to give to children here, as far as portraying nature as violent and that we have to conquer it through technology, but if you read a children's book from the Dollar Tree, you should allow yourself to enjoy it. Especially if you had to pay an extra quarter.