What Were the Shark Attacks of 1916?

Ages 8 to 12, Grades 3 to 7

The panic-filled summer of 1916, when multiple deadly shark attacks shocked the nation, is chronicled in this gripping addition to the New York Times Best-Selling What Was? series.

On July 1, 1916, witnesses watched in horror as twenty-eight-year-old Charles Vansant was attacked and killed by a shark in shallow water off Beach Haven, New Jersey—the first recorded shark attack in American history. Scientists claimed a shark could not be responsible, but more deadly attacks soon followed along the Jersey Shore and up the freshwater Matawan Creek, setting off a nationwide panic that led the White House to declare a “War on Sharks.” In this illustrated book, which features 16 pages of black-and-white photographs, readers will learn about the likely culprit (or culprits) in the attacks—the great white shark and the bull shark—and how the bloody summer of 1916 would change how people viewed sharks forever.

Series Overview: A natural expansion of the exceptional Who Was? series, What Was? focuses on compelling historical events, great battles, protests, and discoveries.

About the Author

Nico Medina is the author of more than a dozen books in the Who HQ series, including What Was World War I?, Who Was Jacques Cousteau?, and Where Is the Great Barrier Reef? He spent many of his childhood summer days in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, the "Shark Bite Capital of the World," where Jaws always seemed to be playing on TV.

Author Residence: Brooklyn, NY