Book Review of Speediest!: 19 Very Fast Animals

1.       Bibliography

Jenkins, Steve. 2018. Speediest!:  19 Very Fast Animals. New York:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN  1328841960

2.       Plot Summary

Jenkins takes the reader on a non-stop adventure through amazing information and data presented about the 19 fastest creatures on earth!  In this riveting book, young readers will marvel at the vivid, dreamlike collage illustrations of each creature that majestically stretch across the white pages in all their speedy glory.  Readers encounter the cheetah, the book cover's featured creature, and discover the top speed of this amazing animal to be a staggering 70 mph, which can only be sustained “for a minute or so.”  Also, the green basilisk lizard, found in Central and South America and nicknamed the “Jesus Christ lizard” due to its ability to “run across the surface of the water,” will be long remembered by young readers.  And, who could forget the aardvark, whose name means “’earth pig,’” and which boasts a top (burrowing!) speed of 8 fmp/mpm (feet per minute/meters per minute)?  Young readers and their parents/guardians and teachers will enjoy this addition to the canon of Steve Jenkins's work again and again, as each reading seems to unearth a newly discovered, scientific surprise.

3.       Critical Analysis

As Jenkins was awarded the Caldecott Honor for What Do You Do With A Tail Like This? (2004), his work carries the assurance of credible research and accurate scholarship.  Each of the 19 creatures showcased by Jenkins is superbly illustrated using Jenkins’s colorful, playful collage technique, which artistically blurs the line between photographic rendering and scientific drawings.  Indeed, the creatures veritably look as though they might just choose to speed right off the page.  Jenkins includes a scale graphic for each creature, comparing it to human size, keeping each entry relevant and digestible in the mind of the young reader.  Also, a keyed globe with textual data specifying where the creatures live is included.  Each creature’s “Top Speed” is declared in an authoritative, gray orb for easy reference.  Jenkins’s knowledgeable, engaging writing style is evidenced in each impeccably accurate paragraph, complete with subheading, about the creatures he selected for this work.  The organization of the work demonstrates true skill and dedication to the creation of a high-quality children’s nonfiction/informational text.

In addition to expertly delivered content on each creature included in Jenkins’s book, he also offers to the reader a useful table of contents, an introductory section on predators and prey (demonstrating an artful general-to-specific approach to the text), an excellent comprehensive, comparative bar chart displaying each creature’s mph/kph to encourage critical thinking, a handy glossary, and a bibliography section to encourage future scholarship.  As a former science teacher, I thoroughly recommend this work for its innovative, captivating content and style.

Reading Level 4.4

Ages 5-12

4.       Review Excerpt(s)

From Booklist:  “With attractive pictures and fascinating facts, these early readers will interest young animal lovers.”

5.       Connections

For a science connection lesson, students could focus on applying the data for rate (r), (“Top Speed”) in this book, to practice working with the distance formula,

d = rt [distance (d) = rate (r) x time (t)].

Students could randomly draw a craft stick or folded paper with one of the included creatures of this book written on it and then work in groups to write their own word problems using the rate data for their creature.  Then, students could teach their problems to the class.

For a science or nonfiction/informational English lesson, students could read, study, discuss, and even present other books by author Steve Jenkins, such as Stinkiest! (2018, ISBN  1328841979) and Trickiest! (2017, ISBN  9781328841957).  The content, writing style, illustrations, and presentation of data could be discussed and compared among these and other works by this author.