Biggest, Strongest, Fastest

Steve Jenkins

ISBN 10: 0780783697 ISBN 13: 9780780783690

Publisher: Perfection Learning, 1997

Synopsis

The biggest snake, the anaconda, can swallow a deer or goat whole. The smallest mammal, the Etruscan shrew, could easily sleep in a teaspoon. In a striking full-color collage, each spread of Biggest, Strongest, Fastest portrays an animal that stands out in the animal world as the largest, slowest, longest lived. Readers can see the animal's size in relation to something familiar, and a chart on the last page indicates the size, weight, and diet of each animal, as well as where it can be found in the wild. Biggest, Strongest, Fastest is an entertaining, informative introduction to the "world records" held by fourteen members of the animal kingdom.

About this title

About the Author

Steve Jenkins has written and illustrated many nonfiction picture books for young readers, including the Caldecott Honor–winning What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? His books have been called stunning, eye-popping, inventive, gorgeous, masterful, extraordinary, playful, irresistible, compelling, engaging, accessible, glorious, and informative. He lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife and frequent collaborator, Robin Page, and their children.

From Booklist

Ages 4-9. Beautiful double-page-spread cut-paper collages illustrate a picture book about "some of the biggest and smallest, fastest and slowest, strongest and longest" record holders in the animal world. The facts are amazing. Their juxtaposition makes you gasp, not just about size and speed but about comparative wonders. Right after the African elephant, which eats more than 300 pounds of grass and leaves every day, there's a close-up two-page picture of an ant, which turns out to be the strongest animal for its size: it can carry five times its own weight. The book's design makes it accessible at many levels. The youngest can identify the various creatures. Preschoolers can enjoy the one-sentence descriptions in large type ("The cheetah can run faster than any other animal. . . . The flea is very small, but it is the world's best jumper"). Older kids will love thinking about the additional facts regarding scale and proportion that are printed in small type, accompanied by a tiny silhouette in the corner of each picture ("If a 5 1/2-foot-tall woman could jump as well as a flea, she could leap to the top of a 65-story building"). Here's proof that power isn't just about size and that science can be a lot of fun. Hazel Rochman

Edition details

• Publisher: Perfection Learning
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0780783697
• ISBN 13: 9780780783690
• Binding: Library Binding