Speed Demons! Speediest! by Steve Jenkins

What do the cheetah, the Mexican free-tailed bat, and the sailfish have in common?

They are the fastest animals in their class: the cheetah is the fastest land animal (twice as fast as the best human), the Mexican free-tailed bat is the fastest in flight, and the sailfish is the fastest fish in the sea.

But like the Olympics, there are lots of categories in the speed awards.

In his 200 mph dive, the peregrine falcon is the fastest bird. But, the green darner dragonfly is the fastest-flying insect, and the ostrich, the biggest (but flightless) bird, is also the fastest--running bird, while the roadrunner is the fastest runner among the flying birds. (Beep! Beep!) The black mamba is the fastest slithering snake, hands down, (if it had hands--which luckily, it does not!).

Some critters are outstanding for oddball speed awards: The aardvark is the fastest digger, the titan of tunneling, and the Panamanian termite has the fastest jaws in the West, creating a shock wave that can knock out its prey! The kangaroo is the longest leaper on on land, but the flying fish can leap and soar a whole lot more--over the sea, that is.

That shaman of the superlative, author-illustrator Steve Jenkins has all the fast facts on speed in the animal kingdom in his recent entry in his Extreme Animals series, Speediest!: 19 Very Fast Animals (Extreme Animals) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018). Loaded with the facts and figures, Jenkin's book on animal locomotion is illustrated with his Caldecott-award-winning torn-and-cut paper collages of wild animals in motion in all sorts of earthly habitats, each with size-and-speed thumbnail comparisons to human powers, accompanied by a scholarly appendix with bar graphs of comparative velocities in all classes, a glossary, and a bibliography for young researchers. With their detailed and lively illustrations and troves of facts, the titles in this series are a first purchase for libraries and classroom collections.

Other books in this series by Jenkins are Trickiest!: 19 Sneaky Animals (Extreme Animals), Deadliest!: 20 Dangerous Animals (Extreme Animals), and Stinkiest!: 20 Smelly Animals (Extreme Animals). (Read my reviews here).

"Do the Locomotion!" Flying Frogs and Walking Fish by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

HIGH ABOVE THE GROUND, A RING-TAILED LEMUR LEAPS FROM TREE TO TREE.

A JUMPING SPIDER CAN LEAP FIFTY TIMES HIS OWN BODY LENGTH.

As orphan Annie used to say to her dog Sandy, "Leapin' Lizards!"

Yes, co-authors Steve Jenkins and Robin Page have those, too, the agama, and lots more curious locomoting creatures in their forthcoming nature science book, Flying Frogs and Walking Fish: Leaping Lemurs, Tumbling Toads, Jet-Propelled Jellyfish, and More Surprising Ways That Animals Move (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016).

Just plain old walkin' has some pretty strange practitioners. Octopuses use two of their eight arms as legs to walk across the sea bottom, and even a few steps up onto the land when occasion warrants. Batfish and sea pigs use fins and other appendages to stroll the ocean floor.

Why do elephants swim across rivers? To get to the other side, and pretty proficient they are at it, too, equipped as they are with a flexible proboscis that doubles as a snorkel. Baboons and sloths like a refreshing swim, too.

There are other surprising ways of locomoting in the animal kingdom. Goats climb trees to get to the tenderest nibbles and escape predators, and so do snakes, Coconut crabs climb palms, cut down the ripe coconuts, and scurry down to crack them for lunch. Flying squirrels, sugar gliders, and flying frogs glide to the next tree or the ground with grace. Many mantas and rays, Draco lizards and flying snakes use their built-in "wings" to fly, but the flying fish are the champs, sailing in the air over the waves for the length of a football field. Some animals say "that's just the way we roll:" the pangolin, pebble toad, and hedgehog prove that they are the real inventors of the wheel, while the squid, jellyfish, and nautilus make their case as the creators of jet propulsion.

Animals are no slouches at getting about, as Jenkins and Page show in their latest curious critter book. Author Robin Page provides just the facts, ma'am, while Caldecott artist Steve Jenkins proffers his trademark eye-pleasing collage illustrations of the many ways animals prove that they are born to move.

As is their custom in these appealing nature books, Page and Jenkins provide an appendix with thumbnail pictures and brief summary of each featured animal and other examples, subdivided into categories of locomotion--walking, leaping, swimming, climbing, flying, rolling, and jetting. This latest for the talented two is an essential for nature study collections and young biology buffs.