Biggest, Strongest, Fastest

Steve Jenkins' Biggest, Strongest, Fastest was a fantastic introduction to animals. I was a bit worried because the first page has almost a paragraph of text on it, but that was the only one. It was just introducing the fact that the book was about animal record holders. The rest of the pages each had at least two-page spread dedicated to an animal who was the biggest, strongest, or fastest at something. There was the giraffe, the tallest animal in the world; the blue whale, which is the biggest animal that has ever lived; the flea, the world's best jumper; the sun jellyfish, the world's longest animal, and many more. 

The organization of the book itself was very conducive to learning. Teachers could read this aloud to their students quite easily to introduce a science lesson, but it would be even better if it was read one-on-one together with a student. On each animal's page was a basic sentence about the animal, an illustration, and a more complex sentence with diagram to explain further. For instance, the page about the bee hummingbird said, "The smallest bird is the bee hummingbird" in large font. Near the bottom of the page in smaller font it read, "The bee hummingbird is an acrobatic flier that is only 3 inches long. It weighs 1/30 of an ounce - less than a dime." Next to the descriptive sentence was the outline of a human hand and the outline of the hummingbird for the sake of size comparison.

Each animal was depicted by a charming cut paper illustration that was strikingly realistic, especially considering the medium. At one point, I literally ripped my hand away from the page because I had become distracted while turning the page and thought that there was actually a giant spider sitting there. No worries - there was no spider. The illustrations truly made this book. Not only were they realistic, but they also reinforced the concepts about big, strong, and fast that were being taught. I could envision this book fitting well into a science or reading curriculum and would recommend reading it even if it's just to marvel at the illustrations...but watch out for the bird spider!